13 years after Ramu’s temples burned, justice still smoulders

At dawn, the bells of Ramu Central Seema Mahavihara ring out softly, their sound carrying across the quiet lanes of the village. Monks in saffron robes step barefoot towards the prayer hall, where fresh paint still gleams on the rebuilt walls. For worshippers, the temple is once again a place of peace. Yet behind the chants of devotion lies a memory that refuses to fade — the night, thirteen years ago, when flames consumed these very grounds. On September 29, 2012, a Facebook rumour that a Buddhist youth, Uttam Barua, had desecrated the Holy Qur’an unleashed one of the worst communal attacks in Bangladesh’s history. By nightfall, mobs had torched 12 temples and 26 homes in Ramu. The next day,...