2 ROHINGYA KILLED IN GUN BATTLE

Refugees shot dead by Bangladesh border guards as they tried to cross from Myanmar

TWO Rohingya refugees were killed in a gun battle with Bangladeshi border guards as they tried to cross into Bangladesh from Myanmar yesterday, officials said.

More than 730,000 Rohingya refugees live in Bangladesh, having fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar where security forces are accused of carrying out killings, gang rape and arson in a crackdown after attacks on police posts by Rohingya insurgents in August 2017.

Bangladesh is hosting refugees in cramped conditions in camps in the border district here, but wants to move them to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal, citing monsoons and an increasingly deteriorating law and order situation fuelled by drug smuggling.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) commanding officer Mohammad Faisal Hasan Khan said in the early hours of yesterday a group of Rohingya were crossing a river on the border by boat when border guards challenged them and asked them to surrender.

“But instead of surrendering they responded with fire arms,” Hasan said.

“When attack and counter attack stopped, BGB members went to the spot and found two Rohingya laid down on the ground with bullet wounds.”

They were pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital. BGB said it recovered 70,000 methamphetamine tablets, known locally as Yaba, along with a rifle and bullets, from the bodies.

Iqbal Hossain, additional police superintendent in the district here, said 44 Rohingya had been killed in gunfights with law enforcement agencies from January to date.

“All of them were involved in drug peddling, robbery, human trafficking and arms trade,” Iqbal said.

“In recent months a section of Rohingya have been involved in crime and some were killed in gunfights with law enforcement agencies.”

Prodeep Kumar Das, officer in charge of Teknaf police station, said several police officers had been injured in gun battles with refugees.

Rohingya rights groups said they wanted the killings investigated.

“We don’t support any criminal activities, but we cannot accept such killings. We demand thorough investigations of all such killings,” said Syed Ullah, general secretary of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights of Kutupalong camp in Teknaf.