Rohingya leader arrested in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA): Elite Bangladeshi forces have arrested a leader of a Rohingya group from the southeastern Cox’s Bazar refugee camp.

Hafez Nur Mohammad, camp resident and commander of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), was captured by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in an overnight operation, the unit’s Legal and Media Wing Director Khandaker Al Moin announced.

The RAB, which conducted the operation and apprehended the man, stated that the force continued its efforts in remote forests to detain other members of the group.

Bangladesh alleges that the ARSA has been involved in violent activities. Numerous groups for the defence and protection of the Rohingya refugees of Myanmar are active in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.

A young Rohingya and refugee rights activist Mohammed Rezuwan Khan shared that his brother-in-law had been abducted by four armed men on Thursday from the Balukali Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar.

The kidnappers released the captive in exchange for 70,000 Bangladeshi takas (approximately $700) on Friday.

“The refugee camps have become a hellfire. I could not name the people who kidnapped my brother-in-law because I fear they’ll then kill me in my residence,” he shared in a frustrated, choked voice.

In a report earlier this month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said criminal gangs were terrorizing the hapless Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Citing official data it said that at least 48 Rohingya had been killed this year so far, while 40 were killed in 2022, with at least 11 armed groups operating in Cox’s Bazar camps.

Scores of refugees had been abducted for ransom and threatened, it added.

UN Bangladesh mission chief Gwyn Lewis met the interior minister on July 18 and expressed concern over the increasing violence in refugee camps.

In response, Asaduzzaman Khan said the government was thinking of deploying the army in Cox’s Bazar to control the situation.

Nearly 1.2 million Rohingya refugees are living in Bangladesh, the majority of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine in August 2017. The Rohingya Muslim community has been termed “the most persecuted community in the world” by the UN. Most of these people are housed in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar district, while around 30,000 have been relocated to the island of Bhasan Char since late 2020.