Bangladesh arrests 6 after lawyer murdered in Hindu protests

Bangladeshi police have arrested six people in connection with the murder of a lawyer during clashes between Hindu protesters and security forces, the government said on Wednesday.

Another 21 people have been arrested “for vandalism and assaults on police” during the violence on Tuesday in the port city of Chittagong, the government statement said.

Angry supporters of outspoken Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari — arrested a day earlier on charges connected to disrespecting the national flag during a rally — battled with police on Tuesday after he was denied bail.

Protesters hurled rocks as security forces fired tear gas canisters, and police said a public prosecutor was killed in the chaos, naming him as Saiful Islam Alif, a Muslim.

Religious relations have been turbulent in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people since a student-led August revolution forced long-time autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India.

Brahmachari is the spokesman of a newly-formed Hindu group leading protests calling for the protection of the Hindu minority, accounting for around eight per cent of the population.

Among the 21 arrested were six accused of being members of Hasina’s Awami League party and its now-outlawed student wing, known as the Chhatra League.

They were detained with “homemade improvised” petrol bombs, according to a statement issued by the office of Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over as interim leader from Hasina.

Both Chittagong and the capital Dhaka were reported to be calm on Wednesday.

In the chaotic days following Hasina’s ouster, there was a string of reprisals on Hindus — seen by some as having backed her regime.

Muslim groups have been emboldened to take to the streets after years of being suppressed, and Hindu groups have rallied in counter-demonstrations.

Yunus has “urged people to keep calm”, vowing that the government “is committed to ensuring and upholding communal harmony in Bangladesh at any cost”.