BANGLADESH, October 27, 2019 (Dhaka Tribune by Abak Hussain): Social media has many uses — some good, some mildly disturbing. But what we are seeing now in Bangladesh, most recently in Bhola and in many other places before that, is unmatched in its vileness, and reveals the existence of a mind-set in our country that most decent people would rather not think about. This is not a one-off incident, it is a trend. The original culprit was the instigator behind the Ramu incident in 2012. A rumor was spread that an offensive post was made on Facebook by a man named Uttam Barua. This led to rampant destruction of the Buddhist communities in Ramu, Teknaf, and Ukhiya, with houses torched and temples looted. A total of at least 19 monasteries and at least 41 households were attacked as a result of a completely cooked up accusation against an innocent man, whose only crime was to be a member of a minority.
We need to see the reality clearly for what it is: Innocent people, always members of one of our non-Muslim communities, are being framed using social media, and this trumped up provocation is being used to rile up angry mobs, who then go on to unleash the worst kind of violence on entire communities. To be fair, not all who engage in this violence are angry; some are just opportunists who take pleasure in casual destruction. For the last seven years, the government has been failing to take stern action against these loathsome elements in our nation, and the more time passes, the bolder these elements get. This is supposed to be a secular nation, as enshrined in the constitution, but our minority communities have no sense of security, while protesters like the ones we saw after the Bhola incident think strength in numbers absolves them of any ethical responsibility towards other human beings.
More at “source”.