KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh: Bangladesh police admitted for the first time Tuesday that an insurgent group ordered last year’s murder of a respected Rohingya leader, saying they were threatened by his growing popularity.
The assassination of Mohib Ullah last September sent shockwaves through the sprawling border settlements that house hundreds of thousands of stateless Rohingya refugees who fled a violent crackdown in neighboring Myanmar.
Hours after the 48-year-old was gunned down in Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee settlement, his family accused the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) of orchestrating the killing.
The militant group is waging an insurgency in Myanmar and has been accused of running narcotics, murdering political opponents and instilling a climate of fear in the camps.
Security forces have routinely denied ARSA operates in the camps and blamed Ullah’s death on an unrelated turf war.
But the police investigation has made headway in recent weeks and the inspector manning the probe said Tuesday that 15 people with ties to the group had been arrested for their role in the killing, four of whom have issued confessions.
“In their statement the four claimed they are ARSA members and they got instructions from ARSA leaders to kill Mohib Ullah,” Gazi Salahuddin told AFP.
“A meeting was held on the night of September 27 to assassinate Mohib Ullah. There were leaders of ARSA (in the meeting) and they demanded he be killed,” he said.
Salahuddin said he believed the murder was ordered ARSA chief Ataullah, who is believed to be in Myanmar, because of the victim’s growing following.
“They thought Mohib Ullah and his organization had become more organized and popular than ARSA. So they killed him,” he said.
“Mohib Ullah was working against ARSA and was raising awareness about the group’s criminal activities.”
The militant group has previously denied any involvement in the community leader’s murder.
More than 850,000 Rohingya refugees live in Bangladesh refugee camps, most of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar that is now the subject of a genocide case at the UN’s highest court in The Hague.
Working among the chaos and unease in the camps, Ullah and his colleagues quietly documented the crimes that his people suffered at the hands of the Myanmar military while pressing for better conditions.
The former schoolteacher shot to prominence in 2019 when he organized a protest of about 100,000 people in the camps to mark two years since their exodus.
He also met then US president Donald Trump in the White House that year and addressed a UN meeting in Geneva.
Insurgents murdered Rohingya leader, Bangladesh police admit
https://arab.news/6ve3p
Insurgents murdered Rohingya leader, Bangladesh police admit
- The assassination of Mohib Ullah last September sent shockwaves through the sprawling border settlements
- Security forces have routinely denied ARSA operates in the camps and blamed Ullah's death on an unrelated turf war
Britain toughens tactics to cut boat crossings
- Over 41,000 people made the perilous sea journey across the Channel last year
LONDON: UK authorities have deployed new counter-terror style powers to seize the phones of migrants who arrive by small boats from northern France, to tackle criminal gangs behind the crossings.
The initiative is part of Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s attempts to slash the number of migrant arrivals, and stem a surge in support for Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration party Reform UK.
Over 41,000 people made the perilous sea journey across the Channel last year — the second highest tally since records began in 2018.
Police and immigration enforcement officers will confiscate phones and SIM cards from migrants at the Manston processing center, near Ramsgate, on the southeast coast of England.
FASTFACTS
• Authorities hope the seizures will enable them to access information on phones, such as contacts and maps to help disrupt the people smuggling networks.
• The opposition Conservative Party’s home affairs spokesperson Chris Philp dismissed the measures as ‘cosmetic tweaks.’
The seizures will be allowed without the need to make an arrest under new legislation — the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill — passed by Parliament last year.
Authorities hope the seizures will enable them to access information on phones such as contacts and maps to help disrupt the people smuggling networks and prosecute the ringleaders.
“We promised to restore order and control to our borders, which means taking on the people smuggling networks behind this deadly trade,” Border Security Minister Alex Norris said.
“That is exactly why we are implementing robust new laws with powerful offenses to intercept, disrupt and dismantle these vile gangs faster than ever before and cut off their supply chains,” he added.
Charities representing migrants have condemned the new measures.
“This new law is anti-refugee. It’s another attack on rights, and further criminalizes people seeking safety,” said Refugee Action last month when the legislation received final approval.
The opposition Conservative Party’s home affairs spokesperson Chris Philp dismissed the measures as “cosmetic tweaks.”
He urged the government to get a “proper grip on the situation” by quitting the European Convention on Human Rights.
The law has also created new criminal offenses such as storing or supplying boat engines to bring migrants to the UK, punishable by up to 14 years in jail.
In November, UK Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood announced a number of proposals to deter migrants, including making refugee status temporary and reviewing it every 30 months.
Migrants will also need to wait longer than the current five years before they can apply for permanent residency. Depending on their circumstances, it could take from 10 to 30 years.
Mahmood described the proposals, modelled on Denmark’s strict asylum system, as “the most significant changes to our asylum system in modern times.”
