Cox’s Bazar, Sept 30 (UNB) – Agitating Muslims torched 30 homes of the Buddhist community and vandalised six pagodas as a sectarian violence broke out at Merunloa village in Ramu upazila here Saturday night.

Officer-in-charge (OC) of Ramu police station Nazibul Alam said the clash continued in the area from 11:15 pm to 2:30 am Sunday after a youth reportedly posted a photograph disgracing the holy Quran on the wall of his facebook.

Local administration has imposed section 144 in and around Merunloa village in the upazila from 10 am for an indefinite period on Sunday.

Apprehending escalation of the sectarian violence, Upazila Nirbhahi Officer (UNO) Debi Chando slapped the ban as tension heightened in the area.

Earlier, dozens of Muslims stormed the houses of Buddhists at Baruapara in the upazila headquarters after they came to know about the photograph reportedly posted by Uttam Kumar Barua, 24.

Police took Uttam Kumar, a resident of Baruapara, into custody in an effort to quell the situation.

MP of Cox’s Bazar constituency -3 Lutfar Rahman Kazal , Ramu Upazila council Chairman Sohel Sarwar Kazal and Ramu thana officer-in-charge along with several platoons of police cordoned off Baruapara and were trying to pacify the Muslims who were vandalising, torching and looting the houses of Baruas (local terms for Buddhists) in retaliation for posting the blasphemous picture on the facebook of Uttam Kumar Barua, also an assistant deed writer.

At least four people were injured in the midnight mayhem, he said adding that the Buddhists got panicked and were leaving their houses for safer places.

Many Buddhist men and women along with their children have taken shelter either in and around the police station and its outpost or neighbouring houses to escape the wraths of Muslims.

Sunil Barua, 40, a businessman and resident of Baruapara, told this correspondent, “I left my house with my wife and children as angry Muslims stormed into my house with sticks and machetes, and started ransacking it. They also tried to torch it.”

He along with his panic-stricken wife and children took shelter in the house of another Muslim man who is known to him.

The ASP said additional police have been called in from Cox`s Bazar town and other parts of the district to keep the situation control.