Ramu people are yet to harmonise with each other following the September 29 attack on the Buddhist community.
Religious harmony seems to have fallen apart and has yielded to a delicate doubt and disbelief among the living communities at Ramu of Cox’s Bazar.
Often there is a constant effort to check emotions in front of people of other religions.
The scenario is the same for all the dominating religion-based communities – Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu – in the area.
“Everybody keeps a secret fear in mind if the situation of attack surges again for any reason,” said Pintu Barua, 50, an inhabitant of Merong Loha village, where the major incidents took place on that September night.
On that occasion, hundreds of people went on a rampage through the village and set fire to houses and temples of the Buddhist community in the area.
At least 12 temples and nine households were torched in the attack.
According to locals and media reports, the acts of civic vandalism in the locality came about based on a rumor that an image had been found tagged with the Facebook account of local Uttam Barua, insulting the Prophet.
Since the night of attack, Uttam Barua remains missing.
Like Pintu Barua, several Buddhist people at Ramu expressed fear at the possibility of another attack.
Sulal Barua, 35, who lost his tea stall in the arson attack, told the Dhaka Tribune nowadays his family goes to sleep in panic.
The same kind of disbelief was also found while talking to people of another religious minority, Hindus.
“People of Hindu community could also be attacked as they belong to a minority group,” Lipika Sheel, 25, a housewife, said, adding that they are living with a constant fear of attack.
“Like other Hindu families, my family also pass the days with extreme fear, while the people of Muslim community vandalised Buddhist temples and households at that dreadful night,” she recalled.
Historically, people at Ramu had been living in peace with cultural and religious differences, before the events of that night, said Sajjad Sultan, 35, an inhabitant of Shreekul village at Ramu.
“We (the Muslims) usually play an important role at any festival of Buddhist community, as both of us are living together since our birth,” he said.
“But nowadays we feel discomfort to do that because some people of our community created the incident,” added Sajjad.
He maintained that an acute mental distance has already been created among the people of different religions, which is not healthy.
A local businessman Abdul Karim said the unhealthy situation can only be removed if such heinous incidents do not recur.
It is very usual that a sort of disbelief will develop among the religious communities after such an attack on a minority group, said Sadeka Halim, a social scientist.
She added that the Muslim communities have to come forward to patch up the differences, as they were responsible for the rift.
Dhaka University’s Professor Sadeka called for steps to ensure the minorities’ participation in all kinds of programmes to heel the pain and earn faith.
Debi Chanda, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Ramu, told the Dhaka Tribune they do not think that such kind of heinous incidents will take place again.
That was completely an “accident” and people are living together as they were before, added the UNO, who also belongs to the Hindu minority.