A Cox’s Bazar police spokesman said no one had been arrested yet (Representational)
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh:
Unidentified assailants on Wednesday shot dead a top leader of the Rohingya community at a refugee camp in the resort district of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
Cox’s Bazar police spokesman Rafikul Islam told AFP that Mohib Ullah was talking to other refugee leaders outside his office after attending evening prayers at around 8 p.m. (1400 GMT). .
“Four to five unidentified assailants shot at him from close range. He was declared brought dead at an MSF hospital in the camp,” he said.
He said the police and the Armed Police Battalion, which is tasked with ensuring the security of 34 Rohingya camps in the country, has beefed up security by deploying hundreds more armed officers.
According to Islam, no one has been arrested yet.
“We are conducting raids in the area,” he said, adding that Ulla had not informed the police of any threat from any group.
Mohamed Noukhim, spokesman for Ullah’s Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARPSH), said Ullah was talking to other Rohingya leaders outside the ARPSH office in Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee settlement, when an unidentified assailant attacked him at least. Shot at least three times. .
“He was covered in blood. He was brought dead to the nearby MSF hospital,” Naukhim told a hideout. Many Rohingya leaders have gone into hiding after Ulla’s murder.
No one claimed responsibility, but a Rohingya leader told AFP that Ullah was killed by the extremist group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which was behind several attacks on Myanmar security posts in recent years.
“That’s the job of ARSA,” he said.
– no one like him –
Ullah, who was 48, emerged as the main civilian leader of the persecuted Muslim minority community after Myanmar military crackdown on their villages in Rakhine province in August 2017, when more than 740,000 Rohingya took refuge in camps in Bangladesh .
Ulla formed the ARPSH in a Bangladeshi camp months after the floods, and it helped investigate massacres carried out in action by Myanmar’s forces and Buddhist militias.
In August 2019, he organized a massive rally at Kutupalong camp, the main Rohingya settlement, which was attended by around 200,000 Rohingyas. The rally confirmed his top leadership among the refugees.
That year, he was also deported to the United States, where he attended a religious freedom meeting organized by the US State Department and led by then US President Donald Trump.
But in recent years, Bangladeshi security forces restricted the activities of Ullah’s group. ARPSH was not allowed to hold any rallies during the anniversary of the action in 2020 and 2021.
Rohingya leaders and rights activists guarding the settlements said an uneasy calm prevailed in the camps, saying Ulla’s killing would have dire consequences.
Rohingya artist Mayu Khan wrote on Facebook, “We do not expect any other progressive leader like him in the camps of Bangladesh. We are deeply saddened by his untimely demise.”
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was “deeply saddened by the killing of a prominent Rohingya refugee representative, Mr. Mohib Ullah”.
“We are in constant contact with law enforcement officials to maintain peace and security in the camps,” Regina de la Portilla, UNHCR spokesperson in Bangladesh, told AFP.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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