Rita Barua, 25, has been virtually alone in the world for the last couple of months since her husband mysteriously disappeared during a religious riot in Ramu.
Rita’s husband Uttam Barua, 28, disappeared without trace on the night of September 29 last year when a sectarian violence ripped apart an otherwise tranquil small upazila town of Ramu.
On that fateful night miscreants vandalised and set fire to 12 temples and nine houses of the Buddhist community at Ramu under Cox’s Bazar district.
“At every dawn I think the day will bring me good news. I pray to the almighty God to return my husband. It’s unbearable for me to pass the days with my only child without him,” Rita Barua told the Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday at her parent’s home.
According to the local people and media reports, thousands of people attacked the Buddhist community in Ramu after a rumour spread that Uttam Kumar Barua demeaned the Quran in his Facebook profile.
It was later found that the profile in question was a fake. Uttam has been missing since the night of the attack, and police are yet to trace his whereabouts.
Just before the attack, Rita along with her 4-year-old son Aditya Barua moved to her parent’s house at 9:00pm, after her husband asked her to do so over phone around 8:00pm.
“That was the last talk with my husband since September 29,” Rita said, adding that she still does not know the whereabouts of her husband.
Due to financial strain, she moved again to her parent’s home from her rented house located one kilometre away in January. She is treated like a pariah now.
Local people, even her fellow Buddhists, keep their distance from her, thus virtually confining her to the four walls of her house.
“The attitude of my neighbours, who I have known since my birth, towards me tend to say that I am ill-omen; as if the disaster befell them because of me,” she said.
“Not only that but also the people belonging to other religions are avoiding me for I am Uttam Barua’s wife.”
Some of her Buddhist next-door neighbours told her to go away from the village, Rita added.
When asked why the neighbours want to distance themselves from Rita, Sumotha Barua said locals held her husband responsible for all the mayhem unleashed on that fateful night of September 29 last year.
On top of the entire social stigma being attached to Rita, she is in financial crisis, as Uttam was the only earning member of her family.
After he disappeared, Rita found a job in March at a local shop where she works as a sales girl with the monthly payment of Tk3,000.
Rita Barua was born and brought up along with her five siblings at Merong Loha village; she is the 2nd child of Shamol Barua and Basu Barua.
On May 01, 2008, she married Uttam and the very next year, she gave birth to their son.
The government rebuilt the houses of those affected by the riots that night, as well as paid Tk300,000 to each of the family. Rita’s parents were among those compensated
However, Rita Barua, the biggest victim of the incident, is yet to get any compensation - from the government or anybody else.
She has only to bear the brunt of blame and suffer silently the pain and pangs of life.