10 arrested as Bangladesh hunts 250 for Rohingya camp violence
7 Rohingya were killed, including 6 in Islamic school attack, 12 wounded in clashes at Cox’s Bazar refugee camp this week
DHAKA, Bangladesh
Police in Bangladesh have arrested 10 people in connection with the deadly clashes at Rohingya refugee camps this week, officials said on Sunday.
At least seven people were killed and 12 others wounded in violence at refugee camps in the southeastern Cox’s Bazar district on Friday.
Six of the fatalities were in a gun attack on an Islamic seminary in the Ukhiya camp.
Law enforcers carried out raids to apprehend suspects after the father of a victim, Azizul Haque, filed a case at the Ukhiya police station on Saturday night, naming 25 people and accusing 250 people of involvement in the violence.
“We are investigating the case thoroughly and will keep hunting down suspects until all of them are caught,” Ahmed Sanjur Morshed, an officer at the Ukhiya police station, told Anadolu Agency.
Violence has surged in the Cox’s Bazar camps after the Sept. 29 murder of Mohibullah, a popular Rohingya leader known globally as an advocate for the rights and repatriation of the over 1.1 million Rohingya living in Bangladesh, most of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in August 2017.
Several Rohingya living in the camps, who declined to go on record for security reasons, claimed that the six people killed at the seminary on Friday were close aides of Mohibullah.
Authorities, however, have yet to confirm their assertions.
The Bangladeshi government said this week that security measures are being beefed up at the Rohingya camps, including enhanced surveillance, deployment and patrols.