Politics of Ramu violence
Tremors from the shocking episode of mob raids, plunder and arson of Buddhist temples and residential quarters in Ramu, followed by communal unrest targeting the Buddhist community and their homes and temples in Teknaf, Ukhia and Patia has been reverting in the body-politic of Bangladesh throughout last week. Soon afterwards, a blame game started among the political parties though the victims and witness have given completely different accounts.
It seems that the violence in Ramu, Cox’s Bazaar, centering an anti-Islam photo on Facebook, was a premeditated and deliberate act of communal violence against the minority. The attacks have caused the ‘Shima Bihar’, a historic wooden structure made in 1706 with valuable Burmese teak, to burn into ashes. The Bihar used to host four hundred statutes of Lord Buddha, hundreds of rare collection of Buddhist manuscripts and books along with invaluable relics.
In the forty-eight hour mob frenzy, about a dozen Buddhist temples and Bihars and more than thirty houses belonging to the Buddhist community were burnt to ashes. These are the outer loss but the inner losses can never be measured. Can we ever regain our faith and belief among the different religion sects? Who has benefited from such behavior of the mob or the mayhem? As all the Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists came from the same cultural origin, we have been peacefully living together for a long time. But the British rule destroyed the peaceful relationship between Muslim and Hindu permanently. Though our relationship with Buddhists was going smooth for years, the recent violence has raised the question on our secular mentality. It put the people of Bangladesh in utter shame to the outside world.
Now allegations arise that the government did not deploy enough police and other law enforcing personnel to prevent the carnage. The sources claim that local Buddhists chased a leader who went on a visit and burned a pagoda on Wednesday accompanied by those who guided the mob.
The other question is, why would someone from the Buddhist community post an insulting picture about the holy Q’uran on facebook in the first place? It seems to be a trick by a group of criminals. Now it is high time for us to find out the people who were behind this. Even if the very Buddhist person did post the picture, should the whole community suffer for that? Is it at all a communal riot or the agitators fell in a trap by the original criminals? Now it is our duty to help the law enforcers to identify and arrest those people who were really involved in the mob although we have little faith in the law enforcers due to their biased attitude which became apparent during the incident.
Mohammad Jashim Uddin
Dhaka
It seems that the violence in Ramu, Cox’s Bazaar, centering an anti-Islam photo on Facebook, was a premeditated and deliberate act of communal violence against the minority. The attacks have caused the ‘Shima Bihar’, a historic wooden structure made in 1706 with valuable Burmese teak, to burn into ashes. The Bihar used to host four hundred statutes of Lord Buddha, hundreds of rare collection of Buddhist manuscripts and books along with invaluable relics.
In the forty-eight hour mob frenzy, about a dozen Buddhist temples and Bihars and more than thirty houses belonging to the Buddhist community were burnt to ashes. These are the outer loss but the inner losses can never be measured. Can we ever regain our faith and belief among the different religion sects? Who has benefited from such behavior of the mob or the mayhem? As all the Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists came from the same cultural origin, we have been peacefully living together for a long time. But the British rule destroyed the peaceful relationship between Muslim and Hindu permanently. Though our relationship with Buddhists was going smooth for years, the recent violence has raised the question on our secular mentality. It put the people of Bangladesh in utter shame to the outside world.
Now allegations arise that the government did not deploy enough police and other law enforcing personnel to prevent the carnage. The sources claim that local Buddhists chased a leader who went on a visit and burned a pagoda on Wednesday accompanied by those who guided the mob.
The other question is, why would someone from the Buddhist community post an insulting picture about the holy Q’uran on facebook in the first place? It seems to be a trick by a group of criminals. Now it is high time for us to find out the people who were behind this. Even if the very Buddhist person did post the picture, should the whole community suffer for that? Is it at all a communal riot or the agitators fell in a trap by the original criminals? Now it is our duty to help the law enforcers to identify and arrest those people who were really involved in the mob although we have little faith in the law enforcers due to their biased attitude which became apparent during the incident.
Mohammad Jashim Uddin
Dhaka
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