The High Court of Bangladesh has asked the government to probe the alleged attacks on minority Hindus by supporters of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's governing coalition, court officials said Wednesday. The court set a Jan. 15 deadline for the government to submit a report on the investigation.
The directive, the second in four days, came from Judges M.A. Matin and Marziul Huq in response to a petition filed by Ain-O-Shalish Kendra, a human rights group.
The judges also asked the government to explain "why it would not be instructed to punish those responsible for the attacks" on minority Hindus.
The petition said the Hindus suffered more than 350 incidents of attacks, loot, vandalism and rape of women since Zia's coalition swept the Oct. 1 parliamentary elections. The four-party coalition includes two Muslim fundamentalist parties - Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote.

Thousands of Hindu families have fled to neighbouring India to escape violence, local newspapers reported. Bureau Report