Staff Reporter :
The Buddhist Community in Bangladesh will refrain from flying paper lanterns during Prabarana Purnima festival this year as a mark of protest against the atrocities on Rohingyas by the Myanmar military and its Buddhist supporters.
“We will not float paper lanterns in the sky this year. The decision has been taken to express solidarity with the Rohingya refugees who are suffering in dire condition and to protest the ongoing torture against them,” the Buddhist leaders said.
A press conference was organised in this connection in the Sagar-Runi Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Monday.
Ashok Barua, Coordinator of Bangladesh Sammilito Bouddha Samaj, said, “We do not support killing of the Rohingyas in Myanmar. The way they are being subjected to torture in Buddhist-majority Myanmar is completely against the teachings of Gautam Buddha.”
The Buddhist community will be donating the money saved through modest celebration of the Prabarana Purnima to the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, Barua said.
Prabarana Purnima, the second largest festival of Buddhist community in Bangladesh, will be celebrated on October 5.
Ashok Barua said, “We are consulting the leaders of World Fellowship of Buddhists to bring solutions to the crisis. We, along with the peace-loving people of Bangladesh, call on the Myanmar government to stop the genocide.”
If permitted by the Bangladesh government and Myanmar Embassy, a group of delegates from the platform will visit Myanmar and try to pursue their government over the matter, he added.
Police have strengthened security around the Buddhist temples in the country and around Dhaka after receiving complaints of threats from the members of the religious minority in Bangladesh.
In the overwhelming Muslim majority Bangladesh, an organisation of Buddhists told in a rally in Dhaka on September 8 that a quarter’ was threatening them over the Rohingya issue.
A day later, police detained three persons at Benapole in Jessore for allegedly forcing a Buddhist monk to speak against Myanmar authorities over the Rohingya issue, recording his statement and circulating the video on social media.
Bangladesh Sammilito Bouddha Samaj handed a memorandum to officials of the Myanmar Embassy in Dhaka on Sept 10.
The Rohingya influx was triggered by Myanmar government’s response to the reported armed attacks on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine State on August 25.
According to refugees now sheltered in Cox’s Bazar, Myanmar security forces are torching houses, killing unarmed men and raping women.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, analysing photographic and satellite images, said security forces and fanatic mobs are carrying out a scorched-earth policy in Rakhine, burning down entire Rohingya villages and shooting at people as they try to flee.
The rights groups say the atrocity is a targeted campaign to push the Rohingya people out of Myanmar, bearing the hallmarks of “ethnic cleansing”.
The United Nations too denounced the “brutal security operation” against Rohingyas in Rakhine State as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
The Buddhist Community in Bangladesh will refrain from flying paper lanterns during Prabarana Purnima festival this year as a mark of protest against the atrocities on Rohingyas by the Myanmar military and its Buddhist supporters.
“We will not float paper lanterns in the sky this year. The decision has been taken to express solidarity with the Rohingya refugees who are suffering in dire condition and to protest the ongoing torture against them,” the Buddhist leaders said.
A press conference was organised in this connection in the Sagar-Runi Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Monday.
Ashok Barua, Coordinator of Bangladesh Sammilito Bouddha Samaj, said, “We do not support killing of the Rohingyas in Myanmar. The way they are being subjected to torture in Buddhist-majority Myanmar is completely against the teachings of Gautam Buddha.”
The Buddhist community will be donating the money saved through modest celebration of the Prabarana Purnima to the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, Barua said.
Prabarana Purnima, the second largest festival of Buddhist community in Bangladesh, will be celebrated on October 5.
Ashok Barua said, “We are consulting the leaders of World Fellowship of Buddhists to bring solutions to the crisis. We, along with the peace-loving people of Bangladesh, call on the Myanmar government to stop the genocide.”
If permitted by the Bangladesh government and Myanmar Embassy, a group of delegates from the platform will visit Myanmar and try to pursue their government over the matter, he added.
Police have strengthened security around the Buddhist temples in the country and around Dhaka after receiving complaints of threats from the members of the religious minority in Bangladesh.
In the overwhelming Muslim majority Bangladesh, an organisation of Buddhists told in a rally in Dhaka on September 8 that a quarter’ was threatening them over the Rohingya issue.
A day later, police detained three persons at Benapole in Jessore for allegedly forcing a Buddhist monk to speak against Myanmar authorities over the Rohingya issue, recording his statement and circulating the video on social media.
Bangladesh Sammilito Bouddha Samaj handed a memorandum to officials of the Myanmar Embassy in Dhaka on Sept 10.
The Rohingya influx was triggered by Myanmar government’s response to the reported armed attacks on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine State on August 25.
According to refugees now sheltered in Cox’s Bazar, Myanmar security forces are torching houses, killing unarmed men and raping women.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, analysing photographic and satellite images, said security forces and fanatic mobs are carrying out a scorched-earth policy in Rakhine, burning down entire Rohingya villages and shooting at people as they try to flee.
The rights groups say the atrocity is a targeted campaign to push the Rohingya people out of Myanmar, bearing the hallmarks of “ethnic cleansing”.
The United Nations too denounced the “brutal security operation” against Rohingyas in Rakhine State as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
