Protests spread across Bangladesh after Indian prime minister's visit

Protesters have attacked a train and some Hindu temples in eastern Bangladesh as anger mounts over deadly police violence in the wake of a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

At least ten passengers were injured in the attack on the train in the eastern district of Brahmanbaria on Sunday.

"They attacked the train and damaged its engine room and almost all the coaches," media outlets quoted a regional Bangladeshi police official as saying.

The protesters also allegedly set alight two buses in the western district of Rajshahi on Sunday, while hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Narayanganj.

Protesters used timber and sand bags to block roads, as police retaliated with rubber bullets and tear gas, leaving dozens injured in Narayanganj, just outside the densely-populated capital, Dhaka. 

Javed Rahim, a journalist in Brahmanbaria town, said that several government installations came under attack in the region. 

“Brahmanbaria is burning. Various government offices were set on fire indiscriminately. Even the press club was attacked and many injured, including the press club president. We are in extreme fear and feeling really helpless."

Several Hindu temples in the town were also attacked.

On Saturday, nearly a dozen protesters were killed in clashes with police during demonstrations against the Indian premier's visit, with violence raging on after his departure as anger swelled over the deaths.

The Hefazat-e-Islam group denounced Modi's visit and the deadly police attack. 

The protests sparked by Modi's visit have since flared into wider demonstrations against police killings, and protesters enforced a nationwide strike on Sunday.

"Police opened fire on our peaceful supporters," Hefazat-e-Islam’s organizing secretary Azizul Haque told a rally in Chittagong on Saturday. "We will not let the blood of our brothers go in vain."

Thousands of demonstrators marched down the streets of Chittagong and Dhaka on Saturday in protest.

On Friday, dozens of people were injured in the Dhaka as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters.

Modi arrived in Dhaka on Friday to mark the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's nationhood, and he left on Saturday after gifting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina some 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine shots.

The protesters accuse Modi of discriminating against minority Muslims in Hindu-majority India and violence escalated rapidly during his visit.

Modi was welcomed to Bangladesh by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the airport in Dhaka and witnessed the laying of a wreath at the National Martyrs' Memorial. 

In February last year, in the worst communal violence in decades in New Deli, nearly 50 people were killed and over 100 wounded as groups chanting Hindu nationalist slogans torched mosques and dozens of Muslim houses.

Anti-Muslim violence began in India amid widespread protests over a citizenship law that Modi’s Hindu nationalist government introduced in December 2019, offering a path to Indian citizenship for six religious groups from neighboring countries, specifically excluding Muslims. 

The bloody anti-Muslim violence in New Delhi coincided with a two-day visit by former US President Donald Trump Trump’s to the south Asian country. 

The Modi administration has been accused of encouraging religious intolerance and seeking to transform India into a Hindu state.

Critics say the new law in India is a grave threat to its secular constitution.

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