| |
|---|
News Desk: Iqbal Hossain, who has been accused of placing a copy of the Quran at a Durga Puja pandal in Comilla last week, was arrested by the police in Bangladesh from Cox’s Bazar on Thursday night.
Earlier, the police had identified the 35-year-old man, whose action triggered communal violence in Bangladesh, by analysing CCTV footage retrieved from surveillance cameras installed outside the pandal in Comilla.
The video allegedly showed him moving in suspiciously with a Quran and then walking out with the gada, possibly of the Hanuman idol at the pandal where the Quran had been discovered.
A new CCTV footage showed the culprit meeting a caretaker of the local Dargabari Mazar. Hossain had collected a copy of the Quran from the local shrine and placed it at the feet of a Hanuman idol at a Durga mandap, creating a situation that later became a Facebook post and used as an excuse by Muslims to attack and burn Hindu places of worship.
The two caretakers were identified as Hafez Humayun and Faisal by the chief custodian Ahmedunnabi Mashuk. Following the meeting of the duo with Iqbal Hossain at 11 pm on October 12, caretaker Hafez Humayun left a copy of the Quran for the culprit in a closet in the adjoining mosque.
Later, Iqbal Hossain was seen collecting the ‘Holy Book’ at about 2:12 from the masjid on the night of October 13. The culprit then went to the Nanuardighi Durga Puja mandap and committed the deliberate act of ‘blasphemy’ to implicate the Hindu community.
