Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of COAST Trust Quoted in BBC Radio ” Cox’s Bazar local police said that, three Rohingyas who had been arrested in a kidnapping case were killed in a ‘gunfight’ with police” dated on 05 April 2019

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The three Rohingyas were arrested on the charge of asking ransom by kidnapping one Rohingya child.

Incidences of so called ‘gunfight or crossfire’ among arrested and police in Bangladesh is not new. But such cases of gunfight with Rohingyas are rare.

The gunfight was taken place near the Muchni Rohingya camp in Hnila, Teknaf on Satarday morning, says Cox’s Bazar Police Superintendent ABM Masud Hossain.

He says, “The Rohingyas who had been killed created a terrorist group in that area, they abducted, robbed, collected extortion and they were hiding in the mountains.”

Mr. Hussein said, “they recently kidnapped a child and took money from his father using various tricks, the child was also from a Rohingya family, later they released the child. We later learned it and arrested three of them. After arresting them, their associates shot the child dead while he was playing.”

Killing of this child of three to three and half years of age was taken place four-five days earlier, informed the police officer. He said, deceased three Rohingyas were residents of Nayapara camps of Teknaf, they had come to Bangladesh many days ago.

Rohingya people are involved in various criminal offences, says a police officer.  In each month, at least 15 cases are filed on various crimes happened in camps. In the Rohingya camps, sometimes clashes and even murder is happening due to conflicts among different groups on establishing supremacy over the markets and in camps- says Mr. Hossain.

he says, ” There is no wall around the camps, and this creates problem for us.  Criminals in the Rohingyas go hide into the mountains after any terrorist activities. They sometimes cross the border easily, this is a big challenge for us.”

But he says that these incidents are not happening too much. He thinks there is nothing to worry about.

While trying to talk with leading Rohingyas in the camp on these allegations, they did not want to talk due to fear. But they acknowledged that, incidences of involvement of Rohingyas in criminal offences had been increased

Additional 950 police members have been recruited in Cox’s Bazar to ensure security of the Rohingya camps. Ten policemen have been recruited recently to investigate only Rohingya related cases.

At present, there are eleven million Rohingyas are staying in Bangladesh. Of them, more than seven hundred thousand came in the year of 2017 to flee from the killings, rape and various types of tortures of Myanmar army. The rest of the Rohingyas had come earlier at different times.

In the early 1970’s, Rohingya had started coming to Bangladesh. In the 90’s, another large number of Rohingyas came. After that, Rohingyas are coming in small numbers and are joining their relatives living here.

The authorities admit that, Rohingyas are still coming.

Many of the Rohingyas who came before have been able to mix themselves with Bangladeshi local communities.

Although Myanmar have given its commitment to take them back, there are allegation against this country not to cooperate in this regard in reality. So, there are fear on whether Rohingyas can return at all.

Executive Director of COAST Trust, Rezaul Karim, who works with Rohingya response  in the coastal region, said that, they have already expressed  concerns about the Rohingyas with uncertainty of education-employment- and future.

From it’s field visit BBC finds that, the host communities, who once sheltered Rohingyas with their sympathy, are slowly losing that sympathy.

Mr. Karim says, “They are living in a very congested place.” They have no communication with education for decades, 55 percent of them are young. ”

“If we provide only food, If we cannot give them any kind of work, if we fail to show the future, if we do not create any opportunity for them, they will be disappointed and will be involved in any kind of bad works.”

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