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Patgram, Lalmonirhat

Most Hindus skip voting

Fear of attacks keeps them away

OUR CORRESPONDENT, Lalmonirhat
Very few Hindus cast their votes in the election to Patgram upazila of Lalmonirhat yesterday, fearing fresh attacks by BNP-Jamaat men.
However, the turnout of Hindu voters in the district's Sadar and Hatibandha upazilas in the second phase of the upazila elections yesterday was relatively high.
Most voters of the minority community of Patgram refrained from voting, fearing backlashes like those centring on the lanuary 5 national polls.
More than 100 houses and shops, mostly belonging to Hindus, were vandalised, looted and torched in Ghoshpara and Shafinagar villages of the upazila by BNP-Jamaat men before and after the 10th parliamentary polls.
Manindranath Ghosh of Patgram's Ghoshpara village said only 15 to 20 Hindu voters out of total 220 of the village had cast their votes while others simply stayed home throughout the day.
"Some people linked with BNP-Jamaat constantly keep watch on us. We dared not go to the polling centre ignoring them,” said the 63-year old sitting on the veranda of his home yesterday afternoon.
"All the Hindus here are still gripped by fear and panic after what the BNP-Jamaat people did to us before the last [January 5] election," headded.
Sunil Chandra Sen of Shafinagar village said most Hindus had lost their interest in exercising their franchise after the BNP-Jamaat attacks on them.
Most Hindus
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"We fear further attacks on us. So, we chose not to go to cast our votes," said Sunil, who too was a victim of the attacks the night before January 5 polls.
Rajani Kama Barman of Patgram's Bawra said, "I and six other voters of my family didn't go to the polling centre, fearing fresh attacks. We passed the day sitting idle at home".
The picture, however, was different in the two other upazilas of the district where polls were held yesterday.
In Lalmonirhat Sadar, a large number of Hindu voters were found waiting in the queues in different polling centres to cast their votes.
"At least 50 percent of 41,000 Hindu voters in Sadar upazila have cast their votes today. The situation in Hatibandha upazila was almost similar, I believe,” said Copal Chandra Barman, general secretary of Lalmonirhat Puja Udjapan Parishad, yesterday.
Sumitra Rani Roy, a primary school teacher of Sindurmoti village in Lalmonirhat sadar upazila, said she and most other Hindu women of her village had cast their votes.
"There were silent threats. But we ignored them and cast our votes. Vote is my right and I have utilised it properly," she said while coming out of a polling centre with some other women.
At least 15 percent of 4,90,969 voters of the three upazilas of Lalmonirhat were Hindus, according to the president of the Lalmonirhat disctrict Puja Udjapan Parishad.