COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Bangladesh authorities on Friday deployed hundreds of police to protect Buddhist temples in the region where about 400,000 Muslim Rohinygas have sought refuge from unrest in Myanmar.
The move came amid fears of attacks on the religious minority in revenge for events in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar.
Thousands of supporters of a hard-line Islamist group staged protests in the border town of Cox’s Bazar after Friday prayers, calling on Myanmar to halt what they called the “genocide” of the Rohingya – who are in the minority in Myanmar.
Most of the Rohingya refugees have fled to camps around the Bangladesh border city where there were already 300,000 Rohingya before the latest unrest erupted on August 25.
There has been a huge outpouring of sympathy in Bangladesh for the persecuted Muslim group, with media giving blanket coverage to accounts of massacres and torture by the Myanmar army and Buddhist militia.
Cox’s Bazar police chief Iqbal Hossain said 550 police have been deployed in the region, including at 145 Buddhist temples, to prevent ethnic violence.
He said police had stepped up security so local Buddhists, who have been established for centuries, “don’t feel panicked”.
“It’s a preventive measure,” he told AFP. “We’ve also set up check-posts across the district.”
The reinforcements have come from the port city of Chittagong to watch temples, including the 300-year-old Kendriya Shima Bihar at Ramu, which hosts important Buddhist relics.
Police were also patrolling outside Buddhist temples in Ukhia and Teknaf – the nearby towns where most of the newly arrived 400,000 Rohingya refugees took refuge.
District authorities have also set up an inter-religious communal harmony committee since the Rohingya crisis started.
Jyotirmoy Barua, a top lawyer from the Buddhist community, told AFP that some 20 armed police were at a temple at Ramu in Cox’s Bazar on Friday.
Buddhist leaders in Bangladesh have protested the anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and have urged Myanmar to resolve the crisis.
They said there have been some minor incidents targeting the Buddhist community.
“They (Bangladeshi Buddhists) are feeling insecure. There is uneasiness,” Barua said.
Police in neighboring Chittagong district have also stepped up security at dozens of Buddhist temples, a senior police official told local media.
Buddhists make up less than one percent of Bangladesh’s 160 million people. They are well integrated in society but have faced past attacks.
In 2012, some 25,000 Muslims attacked Buddhist temples and businesses around Cox’s Bazar after a Buddhist allegedly put an image defaming the Qur'an on Facebook.
At least 11 Buddhist temples were torched in the riot. There were allegations in the local press that some Rohingya joined the attack.
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Bangladesh guards Buddhist temples amid Rohingya backlash fears
Bangladesh guards Buddhist temples amid Rohingya backlash fears
Tourists empty out of Cuba as US fuel blockade bites
- Several nations have advised against travel to Cuba since the US tightened a decades-old embargo
- The island of 9.6 million inhabitants has faced hard times since the US trade embargo took hold in 1962
HAVANA: With rolling power cuts, hotel closures, and flight routes suspended for lack of fuel, tourists are gradually emptying out of Cuba, deepening a severe crisis on the cash-strapped island.
Several nations have advised against travel to Cuba since the US tightened a decades-old embargo by choking vital oil imports.
“I found only one taxi,” said French tourist Frederic Monnet, who cut short a trip to a picturesque valley in western Cuba to head back to Havana.
“There might be no taxis afterward,” he said.
A petroleum shortage has led to regular hours-long power cuts, long queues at petrol stations, and has forced many airlines to announce that they will cancel regular services.
About 30 hotels and resorts across the island are being temporarily closed due to low occupancy and fuel rationing, according to an internal Tourism Ministry document obtained by AFP.
Since January, a flotilla of US warships have stopped Venezuelan tankers from delivering oil to Cuban ports.
Washington has also threatened Mexico and other exporter with punitive tariffs if they continue deliveries.
Several Canadian and Russian airlines are sending empty flights to Cuba to retrieve thousands of otherwise stranded passengers, and others are introducing refueling stops in the route home.
American tourist Liam Burnell contacted his airline to make sure he could get a flight back.
“There was a danger that I might not be able to return, because the airport says it doesn’t have enough fuel for the planes,” he said.
‘Critical, critical’
An absence of tourists is more than an inconvenience for the Cuban government.
Tourism is traditionally Cuba’s second major source of foreign currency, behind revenue from doctors sent abroad.
The revenue is vital to pay for food, fuel, and other imports.
And the 300,000 Cubans who make a living off the tourist industry are already feeling the pinch.
A hop-on, hop-off bus touring Havana’s sites on Thursday was virtually empty.
Horses idled in the shade of colonial buildings, waiting for carriages to fill with visitors.
“The situation is critical, critical, critical,” said 34-year-old Juan Arteaga, who drives one of the island’s many classic 1950s cars so beloved by tourists.
“There are few cars (on the street) because there is little fuel left. Whoever had a reserve is keeping it,” he said.
“When my gasoline runs out, I go home. What else can I do?” he said.
The island of 9.6 million inhabitants has faced hard times since the US trade embargo took hold in 1962, and in recent years the severe economic crisis has also been marked by shortages of food and medicine.
On Thursday, two Mexican navy ships arrived in Cuba with more than 800 tons of much-needed humanitarian aid — fresh and powdered milk, meat, cookies, beans, rice and personal hygiene items, according to the Mexican foreign ministry.
Musician Victor Estevez said because tourism has been “a lifeline for all Cubans...if that is affected, then we are really going to be in trouble.”
“The well-being of my family depends on me.”
The tourism sector had already been severely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, experiencing a 70 percent decline in revenue between 2019 and 2025.
Tourism expert Jose Luis Perello said the island now faces the prospect of “a disastrous year.”
Several nations have advised against travel to Cuba since the US tightened a decades-old embargo by choking vital oil imports.
“I found only one taxi,” said French tourist Frederic Monnet, who cut short a trip to a picturesque valley in western Cuba to head back to Havana.
“There might be no taxis afterward,” he said.
A petroleum shortage has led to regular hours-long power cuts, long queues at petrol stations, and has forced many airlines to announce that they will cancel regular services.
About 30 hotels and resorts across the island are being temporarily closed due to low occupancy and fuel rationing, according to an internal Tourism Ministry document obtained by AFP.
Since January, a flotilla of US warships have stopped Venezuelan tankers from delivering oil to Cuban ports.
Washington has also threatened Mexico and other exporter with punitive tariffs if they continue deliveries.
Several Canadian and Russian airlines are sending empty flights to Cuba to retrieve thousands of otherwise stranded passengers, and others are introducing refueling stops in the route home.
American tourist Liam Burnell contacted his airline to make sure he could get a flight back.
“There was a danger that I might not be able to return, because the airport says it doesn’t have enough fuel for the planes,” he said.
‘Critical, critical’
An absence of tourists is more than an inconvenience for the Cuban government.
Tourism is traditionally Cuba’s second major source of foreign currency, behind revenue from doctors sent abroad.
The revenue is vital to pay for food, fuel, and other imports.
And the 300,000 Cubans who make a living off the tourist industry are already feeling the pinch.
A hop-on, hop-off bus touring Havana’s sites on Thursday was virtually empty.
Horses idled in the shade of colonial buildings, waiting for carriages to fill with visitors.
“The situation is critical, critical, critical,” said 34-year-old Juan Arteaga, who drives one of the island’s many classic 1950s cars so beloved by tourists.
“There are few cars (on the street) because there is little fuel left. Whoever had a reserve is keeping it,” he said.
“When my gasoline runs out, I go home. What else can I do?” he said.
The island of 9.6 million inhabitants has faced hard times since the US trade embargo took hold in 1962, and in recent years the severe economic crisis has also been marked by shortages of food and medicine.
On Thursday, two Mexican navy ships arrived in Cuba with more than 800 tons of much-needed humanitarian aid — fresh and powdered milk, meat, cookies, beans, rice and personal hygiene items, according to the Mexican foreign ministry.
Musician Victor Estevez said because tourism has been “a lifeline for all Cubans...if that is affected, then we are really going to be in trouble.”
“The well-being of my family depends on me.”
The tourism sector had already been severely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, experiencing a 70 percent decline in revenue between 2019 and 2025.
Tourism expert Jose Luis Perello said the island now faces the prospect of “a disastrous year.”
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