The Bangladesh聽interim government on Wednesday instructed the authorities concerned to take immediate action if signs of provocative activities were noticed centring the Chandranath temple in Chattogram.
鈥楬istory and tradition are connected with the Chandranath temple,鈥� said Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, the adviser to the ministries of power, energy and mineral resources, and road transport and bridges and railways.
鈥楴o provocative activities will be tolerated if that destroys our communal harmony,鈥� he warned.
The instruction came from a meeting held between three advisers and the leaders of the Chandranath Dham (Kanchannath-Chandranath-Adinath) shrine committee, said a press release issued by the chief adviser鈥檚 press wing on Wednesday.
The two other advisers attending the meeting were primary and mass education adviser Professor Bidhan Ranjan Roy Podder and religious affairs adviser AFM Khalid Hossain.
At the same meeting, held at the Bangladesh Railway headquarters Rail Bhaban in Dhaka city, land was leased to two mosques and one temple at Joarshahara in Khilkhet in the capital.
Shrine committee leaders said that the historic site of Chandranath temple had been enduring provocative activities for the past five years.
Immediately from the meeting the advisers ordered the field administration, law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies to stay alert and take stern action if they noticed signs of provocative acts.聽
Recently in social media some posts were shared that said a mosque on the peak of Sitakunda hill, where Chandranath temple is situated, would be constructed.
Some of the posts also claimed that a meeting with Harun Izhar, a Hefazat-e-Islam leader in Chattogram, was also held in this regard.
In a post on his Facebook page, Harun, however, on August 17 denied that any desire was expressed to build a mosque in the Chandranath temple area at the meeting he had with some young Islamic scholars on August 16.
They actually discussed about the need for a mosque for Muslims travelling the area, Harun said in his post.
The chief adviser鈥檚 press wing shared a press release on Wednesday, noting that the shrine committee鈥檚 president Apurba Kumar Bhattacharya told them that the temple鈥檚 dilapidated stairs posed risk to travellers.
Adviser Fouzul Kabir then called the officials of local government, rural development and co-operatives ministry to take initiative for repairing the stairs.
Adviser Khalid Hossain said that they would take stern action if someone tried to damage religious harmony.
Another press release, issued by the press wing on the day, said that at the same meeting Bangladesh Railway officials handed over the documents to the respective management committees of lease for 0.2011 acre of land to the Khilkhet Railway Jame Mosque, for 0.0552 acre of land to An-Nur-Jame Mosque, and 0.0562 acre of land to Khilkhet Sarbojanin Shri Shri Durga Mandir against token money.
Earlier, on June 26 the railway authorities demolished the temple as railway said it was illegally built on its property.
Adviser Fouzul Kabir sought apology as an idol fell during the eviction drive.