Escalating violence at settlements often attributed to turf wars among rival factions
DHAKA, Bangladesh
A mob of a dozen people killed on Saturday two Rohingya community leaders in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, which houses over a million refugees, police said.
The deceased have been identified as Maulvi Md. Yunus and Anwar Hossain, both of them camp leaders locally known as majhi.
According to the Armed Police Battalion, the elite police unit tasked with security in the camps, miscreants attacked the two with sharp machetes and fled the scene. Yunus died on the spot while Amwar died at a hospital.
Police spokesman Faruk Ahmed told Anadolu Agency that raids continue to arrest the culprits who killed the refugee leaders at Camp 13, adding that security has been tightened across the Rohingya settlements which are divided into 34 camps.
Ahmed added that the presence of armed groups is said to have increased since the Feb. 1 coup in Myanmar last year. “We have formed volunteer teams with Rohingya youths and police to patrol at night,” he said. “We also have a 24/7 hotline service.”
Bangladesh has been housing Rohingya refugees since they fled a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017, with violence in the settlements escalating in recent months often attributed to turf wars among rival factions.
According to official data, at least 120 refugees have been killed in the camps over the last five years.
