A video grab image shows a small section of the mob that took
part in hours of arson and vandalism at Ramu Saturday night. The group was
caught on camera while heading for Cox's Bazar town around 12:30am Sunday. A number
of young faces are seen in this photo. Image courtesy: Channel 24Most of the attackers who wreaked mayhem on Ramu's Buddhist community from Saturday evening to early Sunday were aged between 14 and 22, according to witnesses.
The witnesses along with many victims also identified at least a dozen locations from where the attackers were brought in by buses, trucks, pickups, jeeps, microbuses and three-wheelers.
On the evening of Saturday, less than a hundred people at Ramu started the campaign against the Buddhists through processions and rallies.
But, overnight, the mob grew to around 6,000. A major portion of those who torched and vandalised temples and houses were outsiders.
They came from Garjania, Monirjhil, Kawakhop, Ukhiarghona, Chakmarkul, Rajarkul, Omkhali, Joarinala of Cox's Bazar, and Barolia, Chakdhala and Naikhangchhari of Bandarban.
These locations are 4-15km off Ramu upazila headquarters, some are remote hilly places. Locals in most of the areas go to sleep between 8:00pm and 10:00pm.
Many at Ramu wonder how it was possible to mobilise thousands of people so quickly so late at night. Who hired the vehicles? Who paid? Who spread the news of the picture insulting the Quran? Who were the planners?
“I was in Ramu till 10:00pm Saturday before going to Cox's Bazar. But I did not know anything about the picture,” said Professor Mushtaque Ahmad, an educationist.
“How did people outside Ramu come to know so quickly about the picture and even before the upazila residents?
“I strongly believe the attacks were planned,” said Prof Mushtaque. Many others echoed his view.
The names of some of those who paid for transport and communicated with their contact persons outside Ramu to bring in the attackers are surfacing in discussions among the different close circles.
In a small upazila town like Ramu, most residents know one another and some names are also spreading from one person to another.
They expect investigators will go after the suspected masterminds of the arson and vandalism that left at least 12 temples and over 50 houses destroyed.
A local said an attacker told a person close to him in good faith that an instruction had come from a “maulana” Saturday night.
The instruction was to mobilise people and torch only the pagoda at Ukhiarghona, not to attack any Buddhist person and their houses.
The local shared this information with The Daily Star on condition of not disclosing the names of those involved with this incident.
A police official said they were collecting the statements of the witnesses and names of those involved in the attacks. But finding the key figures would take time.
A Bangladesh Border Guard official said around 30 people with vehicles were detained early in Sunday morning when they were going back to Naikhangchhari after completing their mission to burn down pagodas.
“We detained them and handed them over to Naikhangchhari police station,” said the BGB official, wishing anonymity.
Contacted, officer-in-charge of the police station over the phone yesterday first denied arrest of any such group at that night.
Later, he admitted around 30 people detained by BGB were in jail. “But they were not coming from Ramu; they were going somewhere from Naikhangchhari.”
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