DHAKA: Seventeen houses of the minority Christian community were set ablaze in Notun Tongjhiri Tripura Para in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts on Christmas eve.
Villagers told police that “unidentified” people torched their houses, but Bangladesh govt, citing preliminary investigation, claimed the arson could be linked to a “long-running rivalry between two groups of the (same) community”.
Four people were arrested over the incident, which took place at 12:30 am when most of the villagers were attending the midnight mass at a church in a nearby village, Bandarban district officials said. All 17 houses were gutted and two others partially damaged.
Condemning the incident, the interim govt in Dhaka claimed that a community elder, on whose complaint police registered an FIR, blamed six rival Christian community members and a Bengali Muslim for the arson. Police were directed to “unearth the motive behind the attack at the earliest,” govt said.
The residents of the village, home to ‘Christian Tripura’ community for generations, were given assistance to rebuild their houses, govt officials said. Food and relief materials were provided. Police have stepped up security.