4th Rohingya refugee killed in Bangladesh

Another Rohingya refugee has been shot dead while he was in police custody during an operation in southeastern Bangladesh.

According to police, the refugee was 36-year-old Nur Mohammad, who had allegedly been operating as a gang leader in the hills around refugee camps.

There has been an outbreak of violence at the refugee camps in recent days. A Bangladeshi Awami League official, Omar Faruk, was shot in the head in late August at Jadimura camp in the border town of Teknaf.

Law enforcement forces blamed Faruk’s death on Rohingya “hitmen,” and have shot dead three refugees over the past week in connection with the incident.

Police spokesman Ikbal Hossain said the fourth refugee was also linked to Faruk’s death.

“He was arrested over Faruk’s murder on Saturday. We took him to find out his weapons in a hill when his accomplices fired on police (on Sunday). We fired back and later found Mohammad’s bullet-riddled body,” he said.

It was unclear whether Mohammad had taken bullets fired by police or his alleged accomplices.

Rohingya refugees say the recent bloodshed has created an atmosphere of fear in the camps.

Reacting to the development, the European Commission said some refugees had fled Jadimura and were taking shelter at other sites following the violence. Humanitarian work by aid agencies has also been disrupted, affecting some 100,000 people.

Nearly one million Rohingya Muslims live in squalid camps in southeast Bangladesh, 740,000 of whom fled a 2016 military crackdown against the Muslim minority in Myanmar.

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims were killed, injured, arbitrarily arrested, or raped by Myanmar’s soldiers and Buddhist mobs mainly between November 2016 and August 2017.

MG