Hindus are the largest minority faith in Bangladesh, accounting for around eight percent of the population
\n Dhaka
\nBangladeshi supporters of an arrested Hindu leader clashed with security forces on Tuesday after the outspoken monk was denied bail on sedition charges, with one person killed, police said.
\nChinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, the spokesman of a newly-formed Hindu group leading protests calling for the protection of the minority, was arrested on Monday afternoon.
\nReligious relations have been turbulent in the mainly Muslim nation of 170 million people since a student-led revolution forced long-time autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to neighbouring India.
\nBrahmachari, of the Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatan Jagaran Jote group, was arrested as he travelled from the capital Dhaka to Chittagong on Monday.
\nOn Tuesday, supporters angry that bail was denied, surrounded the prison van carrying him away from court in Chittagong. Others hurled rocks.
\nSecurity forces lobbed stun grenades and launched baton charges to break the crowd, and Brahmachari was eventually taken to prison in a police pickup truck.
\nNurul Alam, a police inspector posted at Chittagong Medical College Hospital, said a public prosecutor had been killed, identifying him as Saiful Islam Alif, a Muslim.
\n\u201cHe had deep injuries on his head\u201d, said hospital director Taslim Uddin.
\nIn the immediate chaotic days following Hasina\u2019s ouster, there was a string of reprisals on Hindus \u2013 seen by some as disproportionate supporters of her regime \u2013 as well as attacks on Muslim Sufi shrines.
\nIslamist groups have been emboldened to take to the streets after years of being suppressed, and Hindu groups have rallied in counter-demonstrations.
\nHindus are the largest minority faith in Bangladesh, accounting for around eight percent of the population.
\nThe foreign ministry in neighbouring Hindu-majority India said they had \u201cnoted with deep concern\u201d the arrest of Brahmachari.
\n\u201cThis incident follows the multiple attacks on Hindus and other minorities by extremist elements in Bangladesh\u201d, New Delhi said in a statement.
\nTies between Dhaka and New Delhi have frayed, not least by India\u2019s hosting of their old ally Hasina \u2013 wanted in Bangladesh to face charges of alleged crimes against humanity.
\nHasina\u2019s 15-year tenure saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hindus are the largest minority faith in Bangladesh, accounting for around eight percent of the population Dhaka Bangladeshi supporters of an arrested Hindu leader clashed with security forces on Tuesday after the outspoken monk was denied bail on sedition charges, with one person killed, police said. Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, the spokesman of a newly-formed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-445945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n