Fellow Minority Rights Activists/Advocates:
Even before we had the time to post the Open Letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that we wrote and were published in New York newspapers, a horrifying attack on the Buddhist minorities in Ramu, Chittagong has taken place. As a matter of fact, it is still going on as I write. We learned about this a few hours ago and BDNews24.com has just released a preliminary report.
This is indeed one of the worst attacks on the minorities since the attack on the Hindus in Hathazari last year. We have seen what the government does when minorities are persecuted -- the ruling "champions of secular democracy" simply stand by, like the did in recent times, e. g. during the Hathazarti pogrom, this past year. Like then, this time also the police were inactive, admitted the Ministers Barua and Alamgir. And, as you all know Prime Minister Hasina who has been busy promoting her Model of World Peace in quest for a Nobel Peace Prize will simply not prosecute or punish the planners and perpetrators of the crimes that have just been conducted.
So, let's apprise the international community about this pogrom along with the just published news of nearly one million Hindu population loss in the last one decade. Let the world know that this minority exodus is happening due to the relentless campaign of religious & ethnic minority cleansing that has been raging in Bangladesh ever since the country emerged as an independent state in 1971.
Please read our Open Letter to the Prime Minister (attached ) who is currently in New York City at the General Assembly meeting.
Best regards,
Dwijen Bhattacharjya, Ph. D.
General Secretary
Buddhist temples, homes burned, looted in Ramu
Sun, Sep 30th, 2012 4:26 a m BDST
Cox's Bazaar, Sept 30 (bdnews24.com)—A mob torched and vandalised a village of Buddhists in Cox's Bazaar's Ramu Upazila early on Sunday in one of the worst religious attacks in Bangladesh apparently triggered by a Facebook posting allegedly defaming the Quran.
Eyewitnesses and police said the assailants set fire to at least six Buddhist temples and nearly 20 homes and looted and damaged more than a hundred others until 3am in the hate attack.
Cox's Bazaar district's Superintendent of Police Selim Mohammed Jahangir acknowledged the violence in the Buddhist-dominated locality. He said around 3am situation in the Ramu district headquarters was under control but in areas on the fringe, tension was palpable.
"Police patrols have been strengthened in the Buddhist-majority areas," SP Jahangir added.
Paramilitary BGB personnel have been called out to restore order in the affected areas, Suresh Barua, teacher at a local school, said.
Several houses and Mithhachharhi Bonbihar, some five kilometres from Ramu Sadar Upazila, were set on fire around 3:30am, said General Secretary of Ramu Upazila Juba League Nitish Barua.
A 100-foot high under-construction Buddha sculpture was also ravaged in Bimukti Bidarshan Babna Centre in the locality, he added.
Gias Uddin Ziku, Office Secretary of Cox's Bazaar district unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Chairman of Jhilangja Union, said he dispersed Jamaat-e-Islami activists who had gathered around localities of ethnic minorities. He also said he had informed the police of the incident.
Local people said followers of an Islamist party led by several leaders took out a procession around 10pm on Saturday alleging that a photo was uploaded on the Facebook to defame the holy book.
At a subsequent rally, they claimed a youth by the name of Uttam Barua had pasted the purportedly offensive photo in the social networking website and demanded his arrest.
Another militant procession was taken out that marched down towards the Barua Parha around 11:30pm and some youths from the procession set some homes of the Buddhists on fire.
From then on, 15 homes, three temples including 'Saada Ching' and 'Laal Ching' were burned to the ground, Dipak Barua, a local, said.
Police, local administration officials and public representatives were trying to quell the arson and destruction that continued at least until 1:30am.
A local journalist, who was hiding with family in the neighbourhood that came under attack, told bdnews24.com the Cheranghata Barakyang Temple close to his home was set alight. He said the flames died out around 2:45am.
Also, Ramu Maitree Bihar, Saada Chinglaal, Ramy Sina Bihar and Jadiparha Bouddha Bihar were torched, ransacked and looted.
At least 10 Buddhist villages were attacked and Purbo Merongloa locality that had around 20 houses was burned.
Chairman of Ramu Upazila Council Sohel Sarwar Kajal said efforts were on to quell the tension.
Several Facebook users, meanwhile, said Uttam Barua, the Ramu youth being accused of Quran defamation, did not post the photo deemed to be offensive to Islam. They said Uttam was tagged in the photo from a Facebook ID called 'Insult Allah' and so he was in no way responsible.
Recently, there was much hullabaloo was created after Rohingya Muslims tried to cross the border into Bangladesh fleeing the religious riot in Myanmar's Buddhist-majority Rakhine state. A section of the civil society in Bangladesh reacted to the government refusing the refugees entry. The government believes communal forces were behind this incident.
bdnews24.com/corr/mhp/bd/0430h
Sun, Sep 30th, 2012 5:48 pm BdST
Mintu Chowdhury
Chittagong correspondent
Ramu/Cox's Bazar, Sep 30 (bdnews24.com)—Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir on Sunday alleged the attacks on a pre-dominantly Buddhist village in Cox's Bazar's Ramu Upazila was "planned" and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
"The attack was conducted in a coordinated manner. Temples and houses were set on fire using patrol and gun powder. It would have been impossible if the attacks were not planned," he said after visiting the affected locality.
The minister sought everyone's assistance in capturing the culprits. "We came here on the orders of the Prime Minister. All that is needed to be done will be done to swiftly bring the culprits to justice."
Alamgir said the government will provide financial assistance for reconstruction of the damaged temples and houses
Local residents alleged that the attacks and damages were mostly caused due to the negligence of the police and Fire Service. The Home Minister said a committee headed by an Additional Divisional Commissioner of Chittagong will investigate whether negligence on anybody's part was behind the mayhem.
A mob had torched and vandalised the Buddhist village in one of the worst religious attacks in Bangladesh which appeared to have been triggered by a Facebook posting allegedly defaming the Quran.
Seven Buddhist Viharas, around 30 houses and shops were torched in the attacks that started at 11:30pm on Saturday and lasted until around 4am on Sunday. More than a hundred houses and shops were also reportedly attacked, vandalised and looted.
Alamgir and Industries Minister Dilip Barua have visited the spot. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hasan Mahmood Khandaker and other top officials were also present during the visit.
They visited the damaged 300-year old Ramu Sima Vihara of Merong Loa Barua at around 1:30pm on Sunday.
The ministers visited the affected areas and spoke to the Buddhist monks and members of the temple managing committee. They also talked to the people whose houses were damaged in the attacks.
At a short rally held at the Ramu Bazar, Dilip Barua alleged a 'group of conspirators' was behind the attack but did not take any names.
Like Alamgir, he too vowed to bring the culprits to book. "The perpetrators will be tried no matter how powerful they are."
Barua requested everyone's assistance to restore communal harmony in the area.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is now in New York, expressed dismay over the incident and ordered action against those responsible for the attack.
Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to the United Nations A K Momen told bdnews24.com Hasina had told the authorities that the government will not tolerate any activity that hampered the communal harmony.
The United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) has condemned the attack and appealed to everyone to stand by those harmed.
bnews24.com/mc/zk/bd/1720h
Your Right To Know
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Temple attacks premeditated, deliberate: MKA
15 monasteries torched in Ramu, Ctg; 50 Buddhist houses vandalised and Sec 144 imposed in Ramu; ministers MKA, Dilip in Ramu [Home Minister and Industries Minister] ; Violence shocked PM
Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir
Star Online Report:
Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir on Sunday said that the violence in Ramu of Cox's Bazar centring an anti-Islam photo on facebook is 'premeditated and deliberate act of communal violence against a minority'.
"We found evidences of gunpowder and petrol in Saturday's arson of the Buddhist monasteries and houses," the minister said while addressing an impromptu rally at Choumuhani intersection in Ramu around 2:00pm.
Alamgir and Industries Minister Dilip Barua, 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 services were inactive during the arson," said the minister adding that a committee, chaired by the additional divisional commissioner in Chittagong, is soon to be formed to investigate whether the law enforcers 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 assured that the miscreants who stirred the violence would be traced and brought to book within 15 days.
Also addressing the rally, Industries Minister Dilip Barua said that in 1971 the country was liberated to establish a secular state. "The unprecedented events in Ramu have tarnished its reputation and our belief in secularism," he said.
Barua also assured the locals that incidents like these would not recur. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also expressed concern about the incident, Alamgir told the rally.
On Sunday morning, Cox's Bazar district administration imposed section 144 in Ramu after mobs destroyed 12 monasteries and 50 houses there late Saturday following posting of an alleged defamation of the Qur'an on a facebook account of a local Buddhist person.
Selim Md Jahangir, the superintendent of police (SP) of Cox's Bazar said that three of the Buddhist temples were totally gutted.
The violence spread to Chittagong on Sunday morning as mobs vandalised and torched one Hindu and two more Buddhist temples in Kolagaon union of Patiya between 11:30am and 12noon, our Chittagong correspondent confirmed quoting Nazrul Islam, assistant superintendent of police (ASP) of Patiya Circle.
Quoting Uttom Kumar Barua, the owner of the facebook account, police said the photo was mistakenly tagged on his profile. Soon after the violence broke out, Uttom's facebook account was closed and police escorted him and his mother to safety, said the SP.
Uttom is son of one Supto Barua of Baruapara in Ramu upazila.
Regarding Saturday night's incident in Cox's Bazar, police and witnesses said, after news spread about the defaming picture on facebook, hundreds of people thronged to Chowmuhani area of Ramu and staged demonstration in protest around 10:00pm.
In a bid to control the situation, police from Ramu upazila tried to cordon the area off but were soon outnumbered and pushed back.
Around 11:00pm, riot police and Rab arrived on the spot but by then hundreds of people set ablaze Buddhist households in Baruapara of the upazila that kept burning until around 2:00am.
Police and witnesses said, around 12:30 am, a mob torched a 250-year old Buddhist temple on Cheranghata road and then set ablaze Borokang Buddha Bihar and Kendriyo Shima Bihar. Angry mob also vandalised Baruapara Buddhist temple at Srikul in Ramu.
Buddhist people started to flee their homes as the fire services failed to reach the spot amid increasing violence around 1:00am.
With the help of police, the fire services managed to douse the blaze around 2:30am but the temples and the houses were already gutted by then.
Around 3:30am, BGB, Rab and police managed to quell the violence and take control of the situation with the help of the eminent local persons including the lawmaker Lutfur Rahman Kajal, Ramu upazila parishad chairman Sohel Sarwar Kajal.
Since Sunday morning army, BGB, Rab and police have been guarding all the 27 Buddhist monasteries and temples in Ramu while police forces have been deployed in all other areas where the violence broke out.
However police were unable to confirm the number of injured persons as most Buddhist people have been in hiding since Saturday night.
While talking to The Daily Star at his ministry, Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu said some identified communal forces were involved with the incident.
The situation is now under control, Inu said.
