Communal harmony to be safeguarded: Ashraf

LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam yesterday said the government would strictly control violence in the name of religion and protect communal harmony at any cost.
The people of Chittagong have been living in communal harmony for ages, and this tradition must continue, he told a roadside rally at Chandpur Bazar in Banshkhali upazila.
The Awami League general secretary later attended a workers' meeting organised by the local AL unit on Satkania Upazila Parishad premises.
Addressing the programme, he said evidences suggested that the attacks on religious minorities in Satkania and those on Buddhists in Ramu of Cox's Bazar were similar.
Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir were involved in the Ramu violence, and they were responsible for the atrocities against minorities in Chittagong too, he added.
Ashraf urged AL leaders and activists to be united so that such incidents do not repeat.
AL Chittagong south district unit General Secretary Moslem Uddin and Chittagong District Council Administrator MA Salam also addressed the meeting.
Earlier, the minister visited the Buddhist temple, “Rupnagar Sudarshan Buddha Bihar”, in Satkania upazila, which came under attack during the recent Jamaat-Shibir mayhem.
He also addressed another AL workers' rally in Lohagara upazila.