Sujan Kumar Mohonto, 32, of the municipality’s Kaderpara area was held after local Muslims demonstrated demanding his punishment on Wednesday. Police also seized his mobile phone.
He was sent to jail after the police produced him before a court Thursday.
SI Abu Zafar Mohammad Abu Saleh has filed a case under the ICT Act.
“Sujan claimed that he had no idea about how to operate Facebook. One of his friends opened the account for him,” OC Asharful Islam of Panchbibi police said, adding that they were investigating the matter giving highest priority.
In October last year, over 100 Hindu houses and a dozen temples were destroyed by agitated local Muslims of Nasirnagar in Brahmanbaria alleging that Rasraj, an illiterate Hindu fisherman of the same area, had defamed Islam by posting a photoshoped image of Lord Shiva sitting atop the Kaaba on Facebook.
Violent attacks on the Hindu houses in Nasirnagar continued throughout November, and temples were vandalised in over a dozen districts across the country.
Police later found that some other people had used Rasraj’s Facebook account to instigate the attacks.
According to the police and locals, a photo of the Lord Hanuman sitting in between two domes of the Kaaba was posted from the account of Sujan on Wednesday. Learning about it, some Muslims from Kaderpara brought out a procession around 8:30pm demanding his arrest.
Police went to the spot and were able to quell the situation only after assuring that the youth would be arrested.
At that time, a religious function was under way at the nearby Hizbullah Madrasa.
Sujan was detained around 10:30pm and taken to the police station.
Later Police Superintendent Rashidul Hassan and Assistant Police Superintended (circle) Ashok Kumar Paul visited the spot in the night and arranged an awareness meeting on the playground of Balighata Model Primary School.
SP Rashidul, UNO Nur Uddin Al Faruq, Upazila Chairman Mostafizur Rahman, Municipality Mayor Habibur Rahman, Balighata Union Parishad Chairman Biplob Chowdhury and the imam of the local mosque spoke at the rally, among others.
The officials told the demonstrators that they would take any necessary legal action after investigation.
A 20-member monitoring committee, headed by senior politician and District Council Member Abdul Qader Bepari, was also formed to avert any untoward incident.
Moreover, additional police members were deployed in Kaderpara and other important spots of the town.
Despite such measures, some people, mostly youths from T&T Para, attacked Sujan’s house Thursday morning and tried to set the house on fire. But some locals and the police drove them away, Sujan’s wife Boby Mohonto said.
Sujan used to work at a betel shop. “I do not know whether he can operate Facebook. He studied only up to class V,” Sujan’s father Tarapada Mohonto said. “Maybe some of his friends have done this to put him in trouble.”
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