Rohingya commander killed in gun battle with Bangladeshi police

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA): A top commander of Myanmar’s Rohingya liberation group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) was killed in a gun battle with Bangladesh police on Monday in the southeast Cox’s Bazar coast.

Law enforcement forces received information that about a hundred ARSA members were planning to attack Rohingya refugee camp number 17 on Monday in retaliation for the deaths of five of its men in a gun battle with the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) on Friday.

When the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) force arrived at the Rohingya camp, the ARSA members allegedly opened fire at them, Bangladeshi officials claimed, adding that the ARSA members were forced to flee after nearly two hours of fighting, leaving behind their dead commander Hossain Majhi.

The APBn has increased security around the Rohingya refugee camps since Friday’s deadly gun battle between the ARSA and RSO, which killed five of the former group’s men.

The situation has now been brought under control, with law enforcement in command of the refugee camps, according to Bangladesh security official.

According to APBn, the ARSA and RSO groups were formed in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State following a brutal state-sponsored genocide targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority of Myanmar. After finding refuge in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazaar, these groups have locked horns to establish supremacy in the refugee camps.

Nearly 1.2 million Rohingya live in Bangladesh after fleeing a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine in August 2017. Most of them are housed in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar district, but around 30,000 have been relocated to the island of Bhasan Char since late 2020. The UN has termed the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar as “the most persecuted minority in the world.”