The government’s haphazard detention of innocent people in its move to punish the perpetrators of the attacks on Buddhist people, houses and temples at Ramu on September 29 has made the victims and local people agitated.
They are living in constant fear and thus, have kept silence. They think it could force the detainees behave rudely against the Buddhist community from now on. It might also spread social instability and destroy communal harmony in the area.
“The police have arrested many innocent people who were not involved in the incident on that night,” said Sumotha Barua, 30, a victim.
“I think some of them could create problem later as they have been punished in the name of attacking on the Buddhist community,” Sumotha, a school teacher, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Like Sumotha, the locals of Merong Loha, Sipahi Para and Rangkot villages at Ramu in Cox’s Bazar told this reporter that police detained mostly the innocent people rather the culprits and the masterminds.
Asked why the government was doing so and who the main culprits were, nobody uttered a single name.
Many of the local people, however, said among the attackers, there were the activists of all main political parties – ruling Awami League, BNP and Jamaat. The presence of Rohingyas in the incident was remarkable, they added.
Sumotha along with Munti Barua, Shamol Barua, Tato Barua, Biplob Barua, Apon Barua, Shashibala Barua, Tufan Barua and Babita Barua, who live at Merong Laha village had lost their houses as the miscreants set fire to their only shelters on that night.
The miscreants also torched 12 temples including the Sima Bihar and Buddhist Maitree Bihar.
According to the local people and media reports, thousands of miscreants gathered at Choumuhoni intersection and launched the attacks after the spread of a rumour that one Uttam Kumar Barua demeaned the Quran in his Facebook profile, which was later found to be a forged one. Since the night of attack, Uttam went missing and the police are yet to trace him.
Md Zahirul Islam, 40, was kept detained for around two and a half months by Cox’s Bazar police in suspicion of his involvement in the incident.
“I do not know why the law enforcement agency caught me though I was not with the people who carried out the attacks,” he said adding: “The local Buddhist people can say where I was on that night and what I did.”
Zahirul anticipated that he might be a victim of personal vengeance. He is now staying at home after being released on bail recently.
Police said in Ramu, around 250 people were arrested so far in connection with the cases filed over the attacks. The mobs also vandalised and torched houses and temples in Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong the next day. A total of 19 cases were filed over the two-day attacks.
A recent judicial probe report blames the law enforcers’ failure to act properly for the heinous acts. However, the report is yet to be made public.
Al-Amin, hailing from Ramu and a student of Cox’s Bazar City College, was detained along with 10 other students from their mess located at Tekpara of Cox’s Bazar town, on September 30.
“I do not have any connection with the attacks,” he told the Dhaka Tribune adding that he was not in Ramu that night.
He also said some of his detained mess-mates never saw the place Ramu in their life.
Sumotha, who taught Al-Amin at the high school, agreed with him. He said like the teenager, lots of people were detained illogically, “which will make their attitude towards the Buddhist community hostile.”
Md Azad Mia, the Cox’s Bazar district police chief, told the Dhaka tribune that such kind of mistake could happen in some cases. “But that is not entirely true. We have already detained most of the people while some are missing since the incident.”
The government gave Tk300,000 for each of the victims’ families as compensation and also built them houses. The government is also reconstructing the damaged temples with the support of Bangladesh Army.
The support to the victims has been changing the socio-economic behaviour among the Buddhist community as most of the victims who were very poor before the incident now are living a better life at the government-provided houses.
