Khaleda on way to Ramu

She will address a roadside rally at Chakoria

 

Khaleda Zia

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has set out for Ramu upazila of Cox's Bazar by road Saturday morning to visit the ravaged Buddhist temples and localities of the upazila.
On the night of September 29, a mob destroyed 18 Buddhist temples and monasteries and more than 50 houses in Ramu. The violence was apparently triggered by a Facebook photo defaming the holy Quran.
Khaleda, who is paying a visit to Ramu 40 days after the attack on Buddhist community, started her journey for Ramu around 10:50am from Chittagong Circuit House where she stayed for the night.
The party's senior leaders including Standing Committee Member Moudud Ahmed and acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir are accompanying the former premier.
On way to Ramu, Khaleda, also the leader of the opposition in Parliament, will address a roadside rally at Chakoria Bus Stand around 12:20pm.
She is expected to reach Ramu around 3:00pm. She is scheduled to address a 'Sompritee Somabesh' (rally of amity) there around 3:15pm.
Earlier on October 8, Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina visited Ramu and held the local BNP lawmaker responsible for the attacks in Ramu on September 29.
On Saturday, Khaleda started her journey by road around 4:00pm on Friday from her Gulshan residence and arrived in Chittagong around midnight.
She will spend the night at Cox's Bazar Circuit House today, and tomorrow she will go to Ukhia upazila and address a rally there before she starts back for Dhaka the same day.
Earlier on October 10, narrating the violent attacks on them, Buddhist leaders at a meeting with Khaleda at her Gulshan office invited her to visit the violence-hit areas to witness the atrocities herself.
In the evening hours of September 29, several hundred Buddha statues were also looted from different temples and monasteries during the mayhem.
The next day, some miscreants vandalised two monasteries and a Hindu temple in Patiya upazila of Chittagong and torched two monasteries at Ukhia and five houses at Teknaf upazila in Cox's Bazar.