FREEDOM FIGHTER OR CURSE?
Insurgency leader born in Pakistan divides opinion
TO his foes, Ata Ullah is a reckless amateur who has brought untold misery to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya after launching an insurgency in Myanmar.
But to supporters of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa), their leader is an intrepid fighter who left a life of luxury in Saudi Arabia to defend the stateless group against overwhelming odds.
“He’s very charismatic,” said Richard Horsey, an independent analyst based in Myanmar.
“He inspires people. He speaks in a way that resonates with the grievances felt by that community.”
Ullah is believed to have ordered the deadly attacks by Arsa in Rakhine State last month, provoking an offensive by security forces that has sent 420,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.
He first came to public attention last October when he announced his group’s arrival in videos posted online after launching deadly ambushes on border posts in Rakhine State.
Sources close to the leader said Ullah was in his early 30s and appeared to oversee a rag-tag network of cells, comprising lightly trained men armed with sticks, machetes and guns.
In the videos, Ullah listed the crimes committed against the Rohingya by the Myanmar government, and promises to liberate the community from “dehumanised oppression”.
The vast majority of the world’s Rohingya community have been stateless for decades, eking out hardscrabble lives in ghettos in Myanmar or overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.
But, Ullah was raised in a middle class home in the sprawling Pakistani port city of Karachi.
His father studied at the esteemed Darul-Uloom madrasah here before moving the family to Saudi Arabia to teach in Riyadh, then later Ta’if.
There, Ullah recited the Quran at a mosque, where he caught the attention of wealthy Saudis, who asked him to tutor their children. He was soon brought into the group’s inner circle, enjoying parties and lavish hunting trips.
“The Saudis liked him a lot and treated him like one of their own,” said a relative of the Ullah family with knowledge of their time in Saudi Arabia.
But, after the 2012 communal rioting in Rakhine that displaced more than 140,000 people, mostly Rohingya, Ullah abandoned his comfortable life in Saudi Arabia to go back to Myanmar and fight.
Rohingya Solidarity Organisation’s Pakistan representative Noor Hussain Burmi, who met Ullah in 2012, said the insurgent’s vanity and recklessness brought more misery to the community in Myanmar.
Analysts warn that Ullah’s stated aim of defending Myanmar’s Rohingya has severely backfired.
“It’s very difficult to give much credibility to the claim that Arsa is trying to protect the rights of the people,” said Horsey.
“It’s provoked the worst crisis for the population probably in its history.” AFP