Says home minister; points at local MP
Staff Correspondent
Home
Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir yesterday said the violence in Ramu in Cox's
Bazar centring an anti-Islam photo on Facebook is a “premeditated and
deliberate act of communal violence against the minority”.
The
minister alleged local BNP lawmaker Lutfor Rahman had fuelled the violence,
saying the MP neither met the visiting team from the capital nor visited the
victims.
“This
lawmaker used the people who went there to stage protests against the photo. He
instigated them to launch an attack and kill the Buddhists,” he said while
talking to the press in Dhaka.
Earlier
at 2:00pm, while addressing an impromptu rally at Choumuhani intersection in
Ramu, he said, “We found evidence of gunpowder and petrol in Saturday's arson
of the Buddhist monasteries and houses.”
Alamgir
and Industries Minister Dilip Barua, Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood
Khandker, Border Guard Bangladesh DG Maj Gen Anwar Hussain, Rab Director
General Mukhlesur Rahman, DGFI officials accompanied by local Awami League
leaders, visited the spots of violence shortly after their arrival in Ramu
around 10:00am.
“We
have been informed that police and fire service men were inactive during the
arson,” said the minister, adding that a committee headed by the additional
divisional commissioner in Chittagong would be formed soon to investigate
whether the law enforcers had remained inactive.
Alamgir
in his speech also promised to rebuild the Buddhist monasteries and temples and
compensate the victims whose houses were destroyed.
The
minister held out the assurance that the miscreants who stirred the violence
would be traced and brought to book within 15 days.
Upon
his return to Dhaka in the afternoon, he told journalists the country's
fundamentalists had plotted the incident and implemented it with the help of
their “foreign agents” through Facebook.
“We
will unearth the people who were behind this violence. We are not holding
anyone right now because we don't want any innocent to be pushed into trouble.
Hopefully, we will be able to publish the names of those involved tomorrow,” he
added.
The
law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been put on alert so that the violence
again cannot erupt in the adjacent areas, he said.
On
Uttom Kumar Barua's activities, he said, “Uttom shared the photo with his
Facebook acquaintances. We have seen the photo and we are sure that Uttom did
not create that.”
“In
the photo, we saw a foreigner woman who kept her foot on the holy book. So we
assume the photo was supplied from abroad, but Uttom might have acted as their
agent.
“He
is an employee of Bangladesh Institute of Small Industry and Cottage [BISIC].
We are trying to know about his Facebook network,” he added.
He
said, “Uttom's Facebook account has been blocked. Police have taken his mother
and sister in their custody. But we don't know his whereabouts.”
The
minister claimed no causalities occurred as many people from different areas
had come forward to save the Buddhists following the incident.
“We
heard about the incident at around 2:00am and immediately sent the army,
police, BGB and detectives to the spot. They worked together and brought the
situation under control.
“We
have visited all the affected Buddhist monasteries and consoled the monks. We
have assured them that the government will provide them with full security;
nobody will further hurt them.”
The
affected people will get food and financial support, their houses and monasteries
will be built by the government, the minister added.
A night of joy turns to nightmare
Julfikar Ali Manik
It
was a day meant to be full of joy and charity. But it plunged into sadness and
bitterness. A pall of gloom spread over the neighbourhood.
Ramu,
with a significant Buddhist population, was all set to celebrate its Madhu
Purnima (full moon) yesterday morning. Many of its inhabitants were busy doing
last minute shopping on Saturday night, just hours before the festival of
offering honey to Bhikkhus (Buddhist monks) in local temples.
Little
did they know that their happy occasion would turn into a nightmare. Overnight,
the festive mood turned into one of the bitterest experiences of their
lifetime.
Many
of their age-old temples were burnt to ashes by some fanatic groups of people
within hours around Saturday midnight.
A
40-year-old college teacher of Sridhon Para at Ramu was returning home from
Cox's Bazar that night. Around 9:15pm, he got a phone call from his wife who
told him that she was listening to sounds of slogans outside their home with
demonstrators hurling abuse against Buddhists.
"I
was very surprised because such things never happened at Ramu," he told
The Daily Star over the phone, requesting repeatedly not to be named fearing
attack.
He
received a few more calls from his friends before reaching Ramu around 9:45pm,
when he saw a public gathering at Choumohni circle.
"I
went to a fruit shop, bought some grapes and apples for Madhu Purnima," he
said, adding, "We've honey at home. We prepare food and offer it before
the statue of God Buddha and distribute honey among the Bhikkhus at the temple
on this occasion."
The
teacher said the Buddhist community in other places celebrated the occasion on
Saturday. But at Ramu it was to be on Sunday, according to the calendar
followed there.
At
the fruit shot, he learnt form the vendor that a photo, insulting Islam, posted
on a Facebook account belonging to a Buddhist youth had triggered the
agitation.
"I
felt very bad to hear that. We condemn any such thing. We have always had
communal harmony at Ramu. So I was thinking of doing something to uphold this
friendly ambiance in our area."
Himself
a Buddhist, the teacher spent some time talking to friends about the issue and
then went to a friend's home nearby to know a little more about what was
happening.
A
little later, the agitated people brought out more processions and were
chanting slogans such as Naraye Takbir Allahu Akbar.
Fearing
attack, the teacher did not come out of his friend's house to go home where his
wife, a four-year-old boy and his mother were up through the "scariest
night" yet of their lives.
He
himself spent a sleepless night at his friend's form where he saw a flame
engulfing a temple on Buddha Mandir road.
"I
saw the flame of fire in the area for a long time," he said, "I left
my friend's house around 3:30am [Sunday] and went home."
The
rest of the fearful night seemed to never end for the family. And when it ended
without anything bad happening to him or his family, the teacher went out
around 6:00am yesterday to see first-hand what had actually happened.
He
found four Buddhist temples on the Buddha Mandir road burnt to the ground.
"Those
temples are 100 to 400 years old with very rare aesthetic wooden art
work," said the teacher, sobbing at one stage fearing further attack.
"At
one point, I went to a 300-year-old Ramu Shima Bihar temple at my own village
Marangroa, where we were supposed to go to celebrate Madhu Purnima this
[Sunday] morning with my wife, child and mother.
"But
I found that the temple had been reduced to ashes," he said, adding that
the monks fled the area at night fearing for their lives.
Distressed
and panicked by the nightmarish night, the teacher, who opened a Facebook
account about a year ago, closed it yesterday.
For
who knows who tags or posts him with what photo and when? He does not want to
be a part of any such violence.
The Daily Star
Monday October 1, 2012
