Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday blamed the BNP for the Ramu violence and said the BNP always causes an incident to happen and then accuses others, like the grenade attack on an Awami League rally in 2004.
“The Awami League government has ensured rights of all religions by amending the constitution. Religious festivals of all religions have been observed amidst festivity for the last three and a half years. It seems they [the BNP] do not like this. Thus, they attacked the Buddhists in Ramu,” she said.
Addressing the 43th founding anniversary of Jatiya Sramik League at Gono Bhaban with its President Shukur Mahmud in the chair, the premier said the attack on Buddhist temples and houses were like the atrocities of the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971.
Hasina said Islam does not allow attacking people of other religions.
She asked why BNP's local lawmaker was sleeping when the attack was being made and why he did not respond when the army and the local administration urged to come forward and help.
Meanwhile, BNP's team probing the attack on Buddhists in Cox's Bazar and Chittagong found the government's indirect instigation in the mayhem, said BNP standing committee member and probe body chief Moudud Ahmed, reports UNB.
"Despite being informed repeatedly, the police superintendent did not take any action for 2-3 hours allowing the violence to escalate. The administration's inaction manifests the government's tacit support and its indirect instigation at the attack," Moudud claimed before reporters.
Presenting the 67-page report of his party's eight-member probe team at a press conference at the BNP's Nayapaltan office, he demanded formation of a judicial commission led by a retired chief justice to investigate the matter.
However, Hasina, referring to the BNP's probe, said a person who was sentenced to jail for corruption, was pardoned by the president, and had 20 bank accounts in different names was heading the committee.
“I wonder if people would believe the probe conducted by him,” she said.
She said the BNP had blamed the Awami League for the grenade attack on the Awami League rally in 2004, the bomb blasts in three cinema halls after the 2001 elections and the Ramna Batamul blasts in 2001.
She said when the probe reports came out during the last caretaker government's tenure, it was found that BNP men were involved in all the incidents.
She claimed that everyone knew BNP's nature is to put blame on others.
Frenzied mobs destroyed 12 pagodas and more than 50 houses in Ramu, Cox's Bazar, on the night of September 29. The violence was apparently triggered by a Facebook posting of a photo derogatory to the holy Quran.
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