Why BGB adjacent to the temple didn’t come forward to douse the fire?

Sanjoy Kumar Barua

An ancient Buddhist monastery has been torched in the Cheranghata area in Ramu upazila under Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh on Saturday early hours.

Locals said the incident took place at U Chai Chan (Rakhine) Ramu Buddhist Temple around 2:00am when the priests of the 150-year-old monastery were asleep.

Prompt efforts of the devotees and people from the neighbouring area managed to save the temple from burning down completely, said Maung Thunla Rakhine, general secretary of the Cox’s Bazar unit of Bangladesh Indigenous Forum.

“A person with his face covered was seen on CCTV footage. He was seen leaving the complex after setting the temple on fire,” he said.

Emon kanti Chowdhury, inspector (investigation) of Ramu police station said “We couldn’t arrest the criminal yet who set fire the temple. We have collected footage from all surrounding CCTV cameras and investigating.”

 “There is a camp of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) adjacent to the temple, but no one from the camp came forward to douse the fire. After the arson attack in 2012, the temporary BGB camp was set up at the compound of the temple to provide security to the temple and the Buddhist community of the area”, said Maung Rakhaine, secretary of the temple management committee.

Seeking anonymity few locals of the area also echoed the same. 

Contacted, Mohammad Jashim Uddin, assistant director of BGB Ramu Battalion said, “Our camp is adjacent to the affected temple. The authority of the temple informed the fire service, and also police, but they did not inform us about the fire. It was a misunderstanding with the locals that we didn’t go to douse the fire as we don’t know about this. It was really unfortunate.” 

“The BGB camp was set up at the cultural institute of the Rakhine community. The temple authority donated the land to the cultural institute for practicing the history, culture, and language of the Rakhaine community”, said Maung Thunla Rakhine. 

“On October this year, the parliamentary committee has expressed its anger that the BGB camp was not removed despite repeated recommendations from the committee. Later, the committee advised the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to communicate with the public security department of the Ministry of Home Affairs”, he added.

On May 24, 2022 the parliamentary committee in a meeting also recommended to remove the BGB camp while on July 18 of the same year the committee reminded to implement their recommendation but BGB didn’t pay heed to the committee’s any direction, Maung Thunla said . 

When asked about this, BGB official Jashim said, “When the parliamentary committee came here, there was a discussion. The committed told us that they will manage a place for us. Our higher authority can say better in this regard.”

U Chai Chan (Rakhine) Ramu Buddhist Temple was attacked and vandalised in 2012’s violence in Ramu.

On September 29 and 30, 2012, a group of zealots unleashed violence on the Buddhist community in Ramu after spreading rumour that the Facebook page of a local Buddhist youth, Uttam Barua, bore a photo demeaning Islam. 

The bigots set fire 12 wooden temples, two of them 300 years old, and dozens of homes in Ramu town and the adjoining villages, 350 kilometres from the capital of Dhaka, in a rare attack against the Buddhist community of Bangladesh.