Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad held human chains in different district headquarters yesterday protesting the killing of Hindu priest Jogeswar Dasadhikari at a temple in Panchagarh on February 21.

In Chittagong city, the leaders of city and south district units of the organisation demanded a special tribunal to try the killers and security measures in all the religious establishments of religious minorities.

The spirit of the 1971 Liberation War was established on a non-communal Bangladesh, but continuous attacks on people of religious minorities and killings of many of them are posing a threat to the harmonious co-existence of people from all communities, said the leaders at their human chain in front of Chittagong Pres Club.

At the human chain in Barisal city, protesters in front of Aswani Kumar Hall alleged that militants of the Jama'tul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and Jamaat-e-Islam have started attacking minority communities and they also killed hindu priest Jogeswar.

They also demanded exemplary punishment for the perpetrators.

In Savar, protesters at the human chain at Panchaboti Asrom of Dokkhinpara also demanded exemplary punishment for the killers and adequate security measures at all Hindu temples in the country.

The organisation here organised the human chain jointly with Bangladesh Chharta Jubo Oikkya Parishad.

On February 21, unidentified miscreants killed priest Jogeswar Dasadhikari, 50, at a temple in Debiganj of Panchagarh.

The criminals also shot devotee Gopal Chandra Roy, 35, and hurt another devotee Nitai Das by hurling a crude bomb when he was preparing his puja offerings in the morning at the temple.

Jogeswar is the latest victim of a recent string of attacks on clerics and prayer houses of minorities in Bangladesh over the last few months.