Bangladesh guards Buddhists amid Rohingya backlash fears

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Bangladesh authorities yesterday deployed hundreds of police to protect Buddhist temples in the region where about 400,000 Muslim Rohinygas have sought refuge from unrest in Myanmar.

The move came amid fears of attacks on the religious minority in revenge for events in Buddhistdominated Myanmar.

Thousands of supporters of a hardline Islamist group staged protests in the border town of Cox’s Bazar after Friday prayers, calling on Myanmar to halt what they called the ‘genocide’ of the Rohingya — who are in the minority in Myanmar.

Most of the Rohingya refugees have fled to camps around the Bangladesh border city where there were already 300,000 Rohingya before the latest unrest erupted on Aug 25.

Therehasbeenahugeoutpouring of sympathy in Bangladesh for the persecuted Muslim group, with media giving blanket coverage to accounts of massacres and torture by the Myanmar army and Buddhist militia.

Cox’s Bazar police chief Iqbal Hossain said 550 police have been deployed in the region, including at 145 Buddhist temples, to prevent ethnic violence.

He said police had stepped up security so local Buddhists, who have been established for centuries, ‘don’t feel panicked’.

“It’s a preventive measure,” he told AFP. “We’ve also set up checkposts across the district.”

The reinforcements have come from the port city of Chittagong to watch temples, including the 300year- old Kendriya Shima Bihar at Ramu, which hosts important Buddhist relics.

Police were also patrolling outside Buddhist temples in Ukhia and Teknaf — the nearby towns where most of the newly arrived 400,000 Rohingya refugee took refuge.

District authorities have also set up an inter-religious communal harmony committee since the Rohingya crisis started. — AFP