4 held on charges of killing 2 Rohingya leaders in Bangladesh

AA
Md. Kamruzzaman 

DHAKA, Bangladesh
18.10.2022

There are no terrorists among refugees, only criminals involved in extortion, drug trafficking, and human trafficking, says police official

Police arrested four people on Tuesday on charges of their involvement in the killing of two Rohingya leaders in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.

The Armed Police Battalion (APBN) said in a statement that the four people arrested are also Rohingya refugees, but from different camps in the southern district of Cox’s Bazaar.

Bangladesh is currently hosting more than 1.2 million stateless Rohingya, most of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in their home country Myanmar's Rakhine State in Aug. 2017.

"Some Rohingya criminals are active in the camps, and they are desperate to establish dominance across the squalid settlements," Faruk Ahmed, a police spokesman, told Anadolu Agency.

They believe there is no terrorist group in the camps, only criminals who engage in extortion, drug trafficking, and human trafficking, he added.

"They want to make a lot of money through illegal activities, and whenever they see any Rohingya leaders as a hindrance to their criminal acts, they go after them and try to kill them," Ahmed noted.

According to official data, at least 120 refugees have been killed in camps over the last five years.

While the European Rohingya Council (ERC) expressed concern about the safety of Rohingya in refugee camps in a statement issued on Monday.

"At least 13 Rohingya have been killed in refugee camps in the last four months," the ERC said in a statement. It added that among them were eight Rohingya volunteers who were not affiliated with any criminal gangs or organizations operating within the camps.

On Saturday, a group of about a dozen people attacked and killed two Rohingya community leaders, Maulvi Md. Yunus and Anwar Hossain, at camp No. 13. Panic has been spread across the camps due to the latest incident of dual murder.

"We are in a tense situation and fear about our safety and security," Abdur Rahman, a Rohingya refugee at Camp No. 13, told Anadolu Agency.

The persecuted people urge the international community to ensure the peaceful and dignified repatriation of the Rohingya to their home country as a sustainable solution to the crisis.

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