Attack in Ramu premeditated: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said the violent attack on Buddhist monasteries and houses at Ramu in Cox's Bazar centring an anti-Islam photo on Facebook was a premeditated act.
She told this to the Buddhists while addressing a meeting with ‘Coordination Committee of Bangladeshi Buddhists’ in the morning at her official residence Gono Bhaban.
The premier said those, who were behind the attack, will be punished after identifying them from the video footages collected after the violence.
“The way in which the attack was conducted, it’s clear that it was done in a pre-planned way,” she said.
Hasina also claimed that the attack on the Buddhists was conducted to thwart the war crimes trial.
She mentioned that Bangladesh is known as a country of communal harmony to the whole world. “This attack was planned to spoil the image,” she said.
A mob destroyed 12 pagodas and more than 50 houses in Ramu on the night of September 29. The violence was apparently triggered by a Facebook posting of a photo derogatory to the holy Quran.
The violence spread to Chittagong next morning as mobs vandalised and torched one Hindu and two more Buddhist temples in Kolagaon union of Patiya.