Monday, September 29, 2014
Muhammad Ali Zinnat and Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary
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| Only one idol stands amid the carnage at a Buddhist temple in Ramu of Cox's Bazar on this day two years ago. Photo: File |
Nobody knows whether the nightmare will ever end.
Uttam Barua, the Buddhist youth whose Facebook page was doctored for fabricating an anti-Islam post to incite the 2012 Ramu attack, is still missing while his family remains virtually a social outcast.
Uttam Barua
To make matters worse, police submitted a charge sheet in December last year implicating him in the incident and started formalities to confiscate whatever moveable properties the poverty-stricken family has.
Even people of their community blame the family members for the never-seen-before mayhem, which left 12 Buddhist temples burned to ashes and dozens of houses damaged on the night of September 29, 2012.
Our Cox's Bazar correspondent visiting Haitupi village in Ramu on Saturday found Uttam's thatched hut locked from outside.
Uttam's mother went to char areas of the Bakkhali river to work on vegetable fields, keeping his physically challenged sister Jinia locked inside the house, said a neighbour. She usually earns Tk 120 per day working there.
The house still bears the marks of madness by Muslim zealots, who left some 50 houses looted and vandalised, and 15 more torched in the area on that fateful night.
The rampage continued the following day leaving five Buddhist temples burned and two Hindu temples wrecked in Ukhia. Some 11 houses were destroyed at a Buddhist village in Teknaf.
The fanatics also beat up Uttam's wife Rita Barua.
Uttam's father Sudipta Barua works in Chittagong city and earns Tk 3,500 monthly. He hardly visits the family in Ramu or discloses where he works in Chittagong, fearing further trouble.
Rita along with their five-year-old son took shelter in her father's house in Merungloya around five months ago.
With the child, she has been passing days in “untold miseries”, Pragyananda Bhikkhu of Central Sima Bihar said. “None stands by them because they are Uttam's wife and son.”
The family doesn't know Uttam's whereabouts.
An investigation by The Daily Star found that somebody or a group had taken a screenshot of Uttam Kumar Barua's Facebook profile page, cut out the address of an anti-Islam website and pasted it on the address bar visible in the image.
Once the fabrication was done, it looked like the page has shared the anti-Islam image with Uttam and 26 others.
This newspaper also exposed inaction of the local administration and failures on the part of intelligence officials and law enforcement agencies.
A day after the incident, police detained Uttam's mother Madhabi Barua and aunt Aadi Barua. The two were later released on a High Court order.
On December 31 last year, police submitted the charge sheet accusing Uttam and seven others in a case filed under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act immediately after the incident.
This is one of the 19 cases filed in connection with the September 29-30 events.
The persons The Daily Star investigation found responsible for the attack were also made accused in the case. They include Tofayel Ahmed, a local Jamaat leader and suspended chairman of Naikhangchhari upazila.
AKM Manjur Alam, investigation officer of the case and officer-in-charge of Cox's Bazar Detective Branch of police, said they found Uttam's involvement after investigation. He, however, said everything would become clear once Uttam is traced.
When our correspondent, with the help of a Buddhist community leader, visited Rita in Merungloya on Saturday, she first declined to talk, saying, “What is the use of writing all this?”
Then she said, “Police framed my innocent husband.
"I have to hide my identity to move on...we have been ostracised after police submitted charge sheet implicating him. Many people look upon us with sheer hatred.”
Choking back emotion, she said, “I am a heart patient. My driver father is now in his death bed, but we cannot afford his treatment … I have sold out kitchen utensils to buy food for my son.”
On August 12 last year, Rita wrote to the prime minister seeking her intervention in finding her husband, but to no avail. She tried but failed to meet the PM when the latter visited Ramu to inaugurate the renovated temples on September 3 last year.
“In the last two years, I didn't get any assistance either from the government or any non-government organisation or any individual.”
The story doesn't end here.
The family is yet to know that senior judicial magistrate of Cox's Bazar on June 5 this year ordered confiscating the moveable properties of Uttam and another accused, Abul Kashem, “as they remain absconding”. Process is on for this, said Ramu police.
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