Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh:
Unidentified assailants on Wednesday shot dead a leading Rohingya neighborhood leader in a refugee camp in the Bangladesh resort district of Cox’s Bazar, officials stated.
Mohib Ullah was speaking with other refugee leaders outdoors his workplace right after attending evening prayers at about 8:00 pm (1400 GMT) when at least 4 assailants came to the spot and shot him dead, Rafiqul Islam, police spokesman of Cox’s Bazar, told AFP.
“Four to five unidentified assailants shot him from close range. He was declared dead at a MSF hospital in the camp,” he stated.
He stated police and the Armed Police Battalion, which is tasked with making certain safety for the country’s 34 Rohingya camps, have stepped up safety, deploying hundreds more armed officers.
No one has been arrested but, according to Islam.
“We are conducting raids in the area,” he stated, adding Ullah had not alerted police of any threats from any group.
Mohammad Nowkhim, a spokesman of Ullah’s Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARPSH), stated Ullah was speaking to other Rohingya leaders outdoors the ARPSH workplace at Kutupalong, the world’s biggest refugee settlement, when an unidentified assailant shot him at least 3 time.
“He was in a pool of blood. He was brought dead to the nearby MSF hospital,” Nowkhim stated from a hideout, adding that numerous Rohingya leaders have gone into hiding right after Ullah’s killing.
No one has claimed duty, but a Rohingya leader told AFP that Ullah was killed by the extremist group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which was behind quite a few attacks on Myanmar safety posts in current years
“It is a work of ARSA,” he stated.
– No one like him –
Ullah, who was 48, emerged as the principal civilian leader of the persecuted Muslim minority neighborhood when more than 740,000 Rohingya took refuge in camps in Bangladesh, right after a military crackdown by the Myanmar army on their villages in Rakhine province in August 2017.
Ullah formed the ARPSH in a Bangladeshi camp months right after the influx, and it helped investigate the carnage carried out by the Myanmar armies and the Buddhist militias for the duration of the crackdown.
In August 2019, he organised a huge rally at Kutupalong camp, the principal Rohingya settlement, which some 200,000 Rohingya attended. The rally confirmed his leading leadership amongst the refugees.
That year, he was also flown to the United States, exactly where he attended a religious freedom meeting hosted by the US State Department and led by then-US president Donald Trump.
But in current years, Bangladeshi safety forces restricted the activities of Ullah’s group. ARPSH was not permitted to hold any rallies for the duration of the anniversary of the crackdown in 2020 and 2021.
An uneasy calm has descended in the camps, Rohingya leaders and rights activists monitoring the settlements stated, adding Ullah’s killing will have larger ramifications.
“We do not expect another progressive leader like him in the Bangladesh camps. We are very saddened by his untimely death,” Rohingya artist Mayyu Khan wrote on Facebook.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, stated it was “deeply saddened by the killing of Mr Mohib Ullah, a prominent Rohingya refugee representative”.
“We are in continuous contact with law enforcement authorities in charge of maintaining peace and security in the camps,” the UNHCR spokesperson in Bangladesh, Regina De La Portilla, told AFP.
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