Cops hunting man who married Rohingya teen

DHAKA: Police were yesterday searching for a man who defied a ban and married a Rohingya refugee.

Shoaib Hossain Jewel, 25, and his Rohingya bride Rafiza, 18, have been on the run since marrying last month, said police in Jewel’s hometown of Singair.

In 2014, Dhaka banned marriages between Bangladeshis and Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees, following claims that members of the persecuted community were attempting to wed to gain citizenship.

Jewel’s father, Babul Hossain, said citizenship was not the motive this time and defended his son’s marriage to Rafiza.

“If Bangladeshis can marry Christians and people of other religions, what’s wrong with my son’s marriage to a Rohingya?

“He married a Muslim who took shelter in Bangladesh.”

The Dhaka Tribune newspaper said Jewel, a religious school teacher, fell in love with Rafiza after her family fled the latest bout of violence in Myanmar and took refuge at an ulama’s house in Singair.

In a police crackdown, the family was forced to move back to the main refugee camp in the southeastern district of Cox’s Bazar, 430km from Singair.

A lovestruck Jewel rushed to Cox’s Bazar, running from one camp to another in search of Rafiza. He finally found her and asker her parents for their daughter’s hand in marriage.

Their wedding was the first known one between a Bangladeshi and a Rohingya since the August flare-up, the newspaper reported. AFP