Bangladesh police said on Saturday they had launched a manhunt after hundreds of hardline Islamists desecrated the grave of a controversial cleric in an attack in which one person was killed.
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Dozens of shrines have been attacked since the dramatic fall of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year as hardliners gain ground in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
However, Friday’s attack in central Bangladesh was a rare case of a grave being dug up and a body desecrated. A witness said the body of cleric Nurul Haque Molla was disinterred and set on fire.
“We have started identifying the perpetrators, and none will be spared,” said Rajbari district police superintendent Md Kamrul Islam.
Sunni Islamist hardliners were said to be upset because Molla’s gravestone resembled the Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam.
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Molla, better known as Nura Pagla or “Mad Nura”, had claimed to be Imam Mahdi, a messianic figure in Islam, drawing widespread criticism.
He was buried at his shrine in Rajbari after his death in August, but his burial departed from mainstream Sunni Muslim traditions, said Azaz Ahmed, a local journalist.