Fire at Buddhist temple in Ramu is arson attack: police

CCTV footage of the temple showed a young man with a facemask scaling the wall and setting the fire, according to the RAB

The fire at a Buddhist temple at Ramu in Cox’s Bazar is an arson attack, police say.

The Usaichen Buddhist Temple in the municipality caught fire around 2am on Saturday.

A man called the Fire Service and Civil Defence 20 minutes before the fire started and gave them wrong information about a fake fire incident 15 kilometres away from the temple so that the firefighters would be late to reach the actual site, the law enforcers said.

CCTV footage of the temple showed a young man wearing a facemask scaling the temple’s wall and set the fire inside after pouring kerosene, said Jamilul Haque, a spokesperson for Rapid Action Battalion-5.

“Everything will be clear once we identify the youth in the CCTV footage and the person who called the Fire Service,” said Abu Taher Dewan, the chief of the local police station.

The fire damaged a wooden staircase. Taher said a disaster was averted as locals and the fire service put out the fire swiftly.

The incident occurred amid the BNP’s protests to disrupt Sunday’s general election it has boycotted. A number of arson attacks have been reported during the protests.