Communal violence: Missing Hanuman’s mace recovered in Cumilla

The ‘Gada’ (Mace) of Hindu God Hanuman which went missing from a Cumilla temple has been recovered from a pond near the Darogabari Mazar mosque in the district.

Iqbal Hossain, the man arrested for placing the Holy Quran at a Hindu temple, reportedly threw the mace into the pond on the night of the incident.

Inspector Parimal Das of the Detective Branch said it was recovered around 11 pm Sunday.

“After Iqbal confessed that he had dropped the Hindu God’s weapon in a pond, police took him to the pond and a diving team recovered the mace,” he added.

Besides, the case filed over the Quran desecration in a puja mandap of Cumilla has been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Cumilla Additional Superintendent of Police M Tanvir Ahmed said the case was handed over to CID following an instruction from the Police Headquarters.

Police arrested Iqbal Hossain from Cox’s Bazar district on Thursday night after identifying him by scanning the footage of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

Three others were arrested from different parts of the country over the matter.

They are Faisal and Hafez Humayun, the two khadems of Darogabari shrine, and Ekram.

A local court on Saturday put them on a seven-day remand in the case.

Iqbal is believed to have placed the holy Quran inside Nanuar Dighi Par puja mandap in Cumilla city in the early hours of October 13, which led to attacks on Durga Puja venues across the country recently