One of the temples was set on fire during the attacks in the two districts early Saturday morning, police said.



The Durga temple at Atjurhi union in Bagerhat’s Mollahat and its idols were vandalised before the attackers torched it, Mollahat Police Station OC ANM Khairul Anam told bdnews24.com.



Police were yet to make any arrests over the incident.



Temple management committee’s General Secretary Amrita Biswas said they rushed and put out the fire when they saw smoke billowing from the temple after the attack in the early hours.



OC Anam said the committee chief and the secretary were in a dispute with one Rasel Sheikh of Chitalmari Upazila over a proposed trade of the land under the temple’s possession.



“We suspect that the dispute could have led to this vandalism,” he added.



In Barguna’s Amtoli, miscreants attacked the household temple of a Hindu family.



The attack took place at North Tepura village around 3am on Saturday.



Police arrested five people, including one Salam Mridha, over the attack.



The others arrested over the attack are ‘Paran’, Lokman Choukidar, Salam’s wife Rahima Begum and daughter-in-law Rasheda Begum.



The villagers said Salam had an altercation with victim ‘Shankar’ on Friday afternoon.



Salam threatened Shankar during the altercation, they said.



A group of 10-15 led by Salam entered Shankar’s house by splitting the doors and windows using cutlasses.



They vandalised the house and looted valuables.



Panicking, the women and children rushed outside.



The miscreants then attacked the temple of Radha-Govinda at Nomita Dasi’s house.



Nomita said they snatched away the idol of Radha-Govinda.



The miscreants later destroyed the watermelons that Shankar had grown in his field.



Shankar said he could not imagine Salam and his associates could cause such harm following an insignificant altercation.



He claimed he had to suffer a loss of Tk 300,000 for the watermelons.



Barguna Deputy Commissioner Mir Jahurul Islam and Police Superintendent Mohammad Saiful Islam visited the site.



The deputy commissioner said steps to compensate and rehabilitate Shankar would be taken.