AL blames fanatics
An Awami League delegation that visited Ramu upon directives from the prime minister yesterday, held the Islamic fundamentalist forces responsible for the attack on Buddhist temples and houses.
The delegation led by AL Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif visited temples and houses of the Buddhist communities to get first-hand impression of the situation.
Hanif would apprise the premier of the situation today after her arrival from the USA.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir yesterday said the government has information relating to Rohingyas' involvement in the Ramu and Chittagong violence.
“We are already informed of the Rohingyas' link with the violence,” the minister said while talking to reporters after inaugurating a training programme at Armed Police Battalion headquarters in the capital.
Mohiuddin said law enforcers had arrested 93 people in Cox's Bazar and 73 in Chittagong till yesterday morning in connection with the violence.
The law enforcers had been asked to keep vigil in areas where Rohingya refugee camps are situated, he said.
They had been instructed to restrict movement of Rohingyas within the camps so that they cannot contact with local people, he added.
“The government will take stern action under the existing laws against the fundamentalists if they try to spark communal violence,” he told the newsmen.
AL DELEGATION IN RAMU
During their visit, the AL delegates urged people to maintain the country's longstanding social harmony at any cost and remain alert to the danger of such incidents happening again.
They held a meeting with the deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar, and exchanged views with people from all walks of life.
Talking to The Daily Star, Hanif said, “We went to the spot on orders of the prime minister, and we will brief her about the visit tomorrow.”
The AL joint general secretary also said the violence had been committed in Ramu 41 years after the country's independence.
It resembles the mayhem carried out by Pakistani occupation forces and their local collaborators in 1971, he added.
Hanif said they had assured the victims of all out cooperation with full compensation for repairing the temple and houses.
The other members of the delegation were, among others, AL leaders Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, Aminul Islam Amin.
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