Hindu youth sent to jail over mosque comments

A Tangail court yesterday sent a Hindu youth to jail for hurting religious sentiments of local Muslims.

Bilash Paul, 22, of Palpara village in Gopalpur municipal area, is accused of making derogatory comments on mosque through a loudspeaker from a procession that was carrying Durga idols to the Bairan river for immersion on the occasion of Bijaya Dashami on Sunday, police and local sources said.

The incident happened when the procession of local Hindus was passing by a mosque at Kanabari during the Asr prayer as the Muslims who had gone to the prayer asked the participants of the procession not to use any loud speaker and beat drums, they said.

Several youths captured the moments on their mobile phones and uploaded video clips on Facebook the next day, causing a tension in the area. Muslims then brought out a procession in Gopalpur town on Tuesday.

The officer-in-charge of Gopalpur police held a meeting with the local association of Imams and other local Muslims. To quell the situation, Sub-inspector Mohammad Hannan filed a case against Bilash on Tuesday evening bringing an allegation of hurting religious sentiments of local Muslims, OC Hasan Al Mamun said. 

A police team led by SI Jamil Khan, investigation officer of the case, arrested Bilash, a student of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in Dhaka and organising secretary of the university unit of BCL, in Mymensingh town early yesterday, the OC said.

He was later produced before the Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court in Tangail, and the court sent him to jail rejecting his bail prayer.