Bangladesh vows to protect Buddhists

DHAKA: Bangladesh sent in troops to guard Buddhist neighborhoods yesterday after mobs carried out fresh attacks on temples and homes over Facebook photos deemed offensive to Islam.
At least six temples were attacked in different neighborhoods of the resort region of Cox’s Bazaar late Sunday, with thousands of protesters smashing statues of Lord Buddha before riot police used force to repel the crowds.
The violence began Saturday night in the southeast of the country and has since spread to at least five towns and a dozen villages, after claims that a young Buddhist man had posted Facebook photos defaming the Qur’an.
“This was an organized attack. We won’t spare anyone who is found to have played a role,” said Faruk Ahmed, deputy police chief for the southeastern region, adding that nearly 200 people had been arrested.
Twenty-five workers from the country’s largest shipbuilder Western Marine were among those detained in the port city of Chittagong and the company closed its shipyard yesterday.
A senior army officer, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said around 1,000 troops had been deployed in Cox’s Bazaar and 300 in the nearby village of Ramu, where a mob of 25,000 people ran riot on Saturday night.
“We have secured the temples and Buddhist areas. Our teams have set up tents for the people whose houses were burnt,” he told AFP. “We have adequate forces. Things are getting back to normal.”
Buddhists, who make up less than one percent of Bangladesh’s 153 million mostly Muslim population, are based mainly in southeastern districts, close to the border with Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Sectarian tensions have been running high since June when deadly clashes erupted between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.
The 30-year-old man at the center of the accusations has gone into hiding after telling local media he did not post the picture on the social media site, insisting someone else had “tagged” him in images on Facebook.
The man’s mother and an aunt were given police protection after the violence broke out, officials said.