On Friday (5th January) night, a fire broke out at the entrance of an ancient Buddhist monastery in the Cheranghata area in Ramu upazila in Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh.
According to the officer-in-charge of Ramu police station Abu Taher Dewan, the incident took place at 2 a.m. when the priests of the 150-year-old monastery were asleep.
Dewan said that after the priests shouted for help, the locals came to the rescue and doused the fire. “After receiving the information, Ramu Fire Service reached the spot and brought the fire under control. A wooden staircase inside the Buddhist monastery premises was gutted in the fire incident,” he added.
“However, there was no other major damage as the fire was extinguished immediately,” informed the Officer-in-Charge of Ramu police station. The fire that broke out at the 150-year-old monastery completely gutted the stairs.
It must be mentioned that the holy shrine is sacred to the Rakhine community of Cheranghata. A large contingent of police was deployed in the area in the aftermath of the incident.
The cops began investigating the matter and analysing CCTV footage in the area. They were trying to determine whether the incident was an accident or an act of sabotage.
It later emerged that a ‘masked man’ scaled the wall of the monastery, poured kerosene on the staircase and set it on fire. The development was confirmed by Rapid Action Battalion-5 spokesperson Jamilul Haque.
“Everything will be clear once we identify the youth in the CCTV footage and the person who called the Fire Service,” remarked Officer-in-charge of Ramu police station Abu Taher Dewan.
While tweeting about the incident, the Sheikh Hasina-led-Awami League party accused the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) cadres of orchestrating the arson attack. The incident took place two days before the general election in the Islamic Republic.