It was a night of Madhu Purnima.On September 29, 2012, Seema Bihar, the 300 year old temple, was set on fire and razed to the ground in Ramu,Cox's Bazar.
More than 250 Buddha statues were destroyed. But this was not the end of violence. 12 more monasteries in Ramu and Ukhiya were set on fire.Even the residences of Buddhist inhabitants were not spared from the violence as they had to fleed to save their lives.
Nine years ago, the communal riot was triggered by a photo of a burnt Quran posted on Facebook by Uttam Kumar Barua, a member of the Buddhist community and a clerk at the sub-registry office in Ramu. The chaos came to an end when a police investigation revealed that the photos posted on Facebook were ‘fake’. They had tagged Uttam intentionally in an effort to agitate local Muslims.But the irony is that,he went missing at that time. Nine years have passed, but no one still knows about his whereabouts.
Cases, arrests and inquiry reports followed the attacks. However, there have been no hearings or verdict, let alone punishment.
Following the riots in Ramu and Ukhiya, Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua filed a writ petition to the High Court challenging the inactivity of police during the violence and according to him, the petition he filed over the riot in Ramu and Ukhiya has made no progress.According to him, at least 19 cases are pending and one has been withdrawn. An order was issued for further investigation of 18 cases filed at the Ramu, Cox’s Bazar and Ukhiya police stations. There was no progress in the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Pragyananda Bhikkhu of Seema Buddha Bihar a total of 19 cases were filed after the incident and over 15,000 people were accused.
At present there are 995 accused in the chargesheet and all of them including Naikhanchhari Upazila Parishad Chairman Tofayel Ahmed, GM Rahimulla, secretary of the district’s Jamaat-e-Islami, and Sadar Upazila Vice Chairman Shahidul Alam Bahadur, are in bail.
Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to Ramu on 8 October 2012 and former prime minister Khaleda Zia came to Ramu on 10 November 2012. Both of them reiterated that no one from theri parties were involved in this incident. Even Jamaat-e-Islami and Shibir gave statement on their non-involvement.The home ministry's report and above mentioned report stated that it had not been possible to determine who had prepared this plan or where and how it was devised.
A committee was formed by The High Court.A judiciary inquiry committee was also formed. After they submitted the report, the case was not scheduled for hearing in any court. Now that the culprits are freely living their lives even after their names appeared in the government probe. They have not been punished yet. If this incident was agaist the majority Muslim community, I believe, the luck of the perpetrators would have been different.
The trial of the case is being delayed because of the unavailability of witnesses. The people who are about to give evidences are afraid to be witnesses in the court. They know how their life can again be turned into ashes if they do so.
Taking all other evidences available and the reports of the judicial committee into account and by ensuring full fledged security to the witnesses,we eagerly hope to get justice for the visctim ones and make sure that the same incidents don’t happen in future anymore based on religious beliefs.
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