Politics

2 Rohingyas killed in fresh violence in Bangladesh refugee camps

Dhaka, Oct 27 (EFE).- Two members of the Rohingya community were killed on Thursday in a refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh, after being attacked by machetes and shot, amid growing violence in the camps which has resulted in seven deaths already this month.

The first victim, a 30-year-old man, was hacked to death in the early hours of Thursday outside his shelter, with the authorities being unable to identify the assailants so far, Sheikh Mohammad Ali, officer in-charge of the Ukhiya police station, told EFE.

Following the first incident, a man aged 40 was first attacked with machetes and then shot dead when he came out of his house, situated in the same block of the camp.

Although relatives rushed the second victim to a nearby hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, he could not be saved.

“They might have been killed over previous animosity among the Rohingyas,” Cox’s Bazar police chief Mahfuzul Islam told EFE, explaining that a day earlier, another Rohingya refugee had been killed in the same area.

The fresh outbreak of violence has raised the number of deaths in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps to 7 in October so far, the highest in recent months,

A young man was killed on Oct. 18 due to being shot after the assailants slit his throat, while two community leaders were hacked to death on Oct. 15 in the same area.

Earlier, an 11-year-old Rohingya girl was shot dead and a woman was injured in Ukhiya when gunmen opened fire at a market on Oct. 4.

At least 12 Rohingya refugees, including several community leaders, were killed between July and September.

An Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights leader, who is under protective custody, told EFE earlier this month that the rebel group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) might be behind the recent killings, aiming to block the Rohingya repatriation process.

The ARSA is suspected to have carried out a series of attacks in 2017 in the northern Rakhine province of Myanmar, following which the army launched a brutal retaliatory campaign that led to around 774,000 Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh.

However, Bangladesh police has attributed the recent spike in violence in the refugee camps to the return of criminal elements after border tensions with Myanmar. EFE

am-hbc/ia

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