BBC: Bangladesh Buddhists pick up pieces after mob rampage

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Bangladesh Buddhists pick up pieces after mob rampage
By Anbarasan Ethirajan
BBC News, Ramu, Cox’s Bazar District

Hundreds of Buddhists lost their homes after the bloody clash in villages

Shashanko Barua's voice trembles when he recounts how he and his family ran for their lives to escape an angry Muslim mob last year.

They hid in a forest for a whole night near their village in the south-eastern Bangladeshi district of Cox's Bazar before returning home.

Mr Barua, a Buddhist, says that when he returned to the village, he found his small tin-roof house had been completely destroyed and all his belongings looted. His neighbours also faced similar fates.

Hundreds of Buddhists became homeless overnight after thousands of Muslims rampaged through villages, looting houses and burning down Buddhist temples.

While Bangladesh has witnessed bloody clashes between Muslims and minority Hindus in the past, it was a rare attack on the Buddhists.

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