Bangladesh violence blame spread

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DHAKA, Bangladesh, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- The Bangladeshi government and its main opposition blamed each other for the weekend violence in Cox's Bazar and Chittagong over an anti-Islam Facebook photo.

Protesters, angered over the photo, attacked and damaged two Hindu and two Buddhist temples in the port city of Chittagong and in the fishing town of Cox's Bazar and caused other damage.

Bangladeshi Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir said the violence in Ramu district of Cox's Bazar was a "premeditated and deliberate act of communal violence against the minority" and blamed a lawmaker from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the Daily Star reported.

However, bdnews.com said the opposition lawmaker rejected the allegations, and blamed supporters of the ruling Awami League for the violence.

The Star said Home Minister Alamgir promised to rebuild the Buddhist monasteries and the temples and to compensate the victims whose houses were destroyed.

Seven Buddhist Viharas or temples and about 30 houses and shops were torched in the attacks that started Saturday and lasted until early Sunday, bdnews reported. The violence also spread to the outskirts of the port city of Chittagong.

The violence began after Muslims said they had found a Facebook site posted by a Buddhist man they alleged defamed the Koran, the holy text of Muslims, Voice of America reported.