Bangladesh on Saturday promised to mete out justice to the killers of a prominent Rohingya rights activist.
Mohib Ullah, the head of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), was killed by unknown gunmen in the Kutupalong refugee camp, in the southeastern Bangladeshi district of Cox’s Bazar, on Wednesday night.
The police made three arrests on Friday in connection with the killing but provided no further details.
Over 700,000 Rohingya fled their home country Myanmar to Bangladesh, following a brutal crackdown by the military in 2017.
What has Bangladesh promised?
“The government will take stern action against those who were involved in the killing. No one will be spared,” Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said in his first comment since the killing.
Momen added that “vested” interests were responsible for the killing as Mohib Ullah had wanted to return to Myanmar. “The killers of Mohib Ullah must be brought to justice,” he said.
Are there any suspects?
The three people arrested on Friday are believed to have links to an armed insurgent group among Rohingya refugees.
They are currently being interrogated, Naimul Huq, a police official in Cox’s Bazar, said.
In an unverified video circulated on social media, Mohib Ullah’s brother, Habib Ullah, who said he witnessed the shooting, blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), an armed group active in the camps.
ARSA said in a post on Twitter on Friday that it was “shocked and saddened” by the killing and decried “finger-pointing with baseless and hearsay accusations.”
Who was Mohib Ullah?
Mohib Ullah was known as a moderate who advocated for the Rohingya to return to Myanmar with rights they were denied during decades of persecution.
He founded the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights in a bid to document atrocities against Rohingya in their native Myanmar and give them a voice in international talks about their future.
But his high profile made him a target of hardliners and he received death threats.
The killing has ignited grief and anger in the camps that make up the world’s largest refugee settlement.
kmm/rc (Reuters, dpa)
Bangladesh pledges ‘justice’ for murdered Rohingya activist
Source: Pinoy Pop News
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