With whatever they could take, this family like hundreds of other Hindu families had left their homes to flee BNP-Jamaat atrocities in Thakurgaon sadar upazila two days back. They were returning to their village yesterday on the administration's assurances of security. But fears and worries writ large on their faces tell of an ordeal yet to be over. Photo: Star

Fresh attacks were launched on houses and businesses of Hindus in several northern districts over the last two days, despite law enforcers' drives against post-polls and communal violence.  
Jamaat-BNP men vandalised more than a hundred shops belonging to Hindus at Sonahar bazaar in Debiganj upazila of Panchagarh on Monday afternoon.
Six police constables, who had been on duty there, were also beaten by the activists and confined to a shop for four hours till joint forces rescued them around 9:00pm.  
Of the injured cops, Swapan Kumar was admitted to Debiganj Upazila Health Complex.
The Hindus in several other villages of the upazila, including Moidanarhat, Santipur, Prodhanpara and Alamnagar, are also living in fear of attacks, locals say.   
In Rajshahi, Jamaat activists hurled a bomb on the house of Asit Kumar Ghosh, a leader of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council last night. However, none was hurt in the blast.
Earlier, the council had demanded police vigilance at all the nine upazilas of the district in the wake of violence against minorities.
In an another incident, the activists of BNP and Jamaat destroyed two houses and five  shops of Hindus in Kuptola union of Gaibandha and injured five persons Monday night.
In Lalmonirhat, Harendra Nath Roy, 62, caretaker of a temple in Shafinagar, along with his family members was confined to a house for two hours from 9:00pm on Monday.
Contacted yesterday morning, Harendra Nath just kept crying, without saying a single word.
Over a hundred Hindu families in Shafinagar as well as Senpara village have been under threat of Jamaat-Shibir attacks since Sunday's national election.

The rubble of a Hindu family's house attacked early Monday in Kornai village of Dinajpur. Photo: Star

Hardly any Hindu male stays home at night while many women and children have been sent to relatives' houses in neighbouring areas.
In Shafinagar, a group of Jamaat-Shibir activists had set fire to a temple and assaulted some Hindus on the eve of the polls.
In Thakurgaon and Dinajpur, security of women has become the biggest concern as families who fled away after Sunday night's mayhem have started to return home on safety assurance by the administration.    
Nikhil Sarkar, 48, of Gopalpur village in Thakurgaon, said “We don't feel safe at all. They [BNP-Jamaat men] asked us to leave for India; otherwise, they would rape our women.”
Raj Kumar, a village doctor at Kornai in Dinajpur, said his wife and daughters have gone to a relative's house for safety. There are many others like them.
Meanwhile, the victims who came back to Malopara, a Hindu village of fishermen in Jessore, found that the BNP-Jamaat men not only vandalised or torched their houses and shops, but looted everything they had.  
“It would have been better if they had killed us. They took away everything from 105 houses in our village. They either looted the valuables or damaged those. We have been left destitute,” said Ranjita, wife of Dulal Biswas who was the most solvent among fishermen in the village.
From their house, she said, the raiders looted Tk 38 thousand in cash, some gold ornaments which were for the marriage of his daughters and other valuables. All of their five fishing nets were burned down.  
A case was filed accusing 39 Jamaat-Shibir men and 200 others for the Malopara atrocities, said Officer-in-Charge M Mahsin of Abhaynagar Police Station yesterday.
In connection with the communal attacks, police have arrested 17 people in Rangpur, two in Jessore and another five in Dinajpur.