Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
26-08-2023
DHAKA/ ROHINGYA: Sounds of gunfire keep Modina Khatun awake every night in Cox’s Bazaar Bangladesh, the world’s largest refugee camp.
She fears that spiraling gang violence there will make a widow of another Rohingya woman like herself, with young children to feed.
Khatun’s husband, Bashir Ullah, became a grim statistic last June when he was shot dead after getting caught in the crossfire of two gangs at Cox’s Bazar in south-east Bangladesh. That night, he volunteered to patrol the sprawling camp that the Rohingyas have called home for six years now.
Drug smuggling and human trafficking gangs have turned life at Cox’s Bazar into a nightmare for the close to one million ethnic minority Rohingyas, many of whom crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar in 2017 to escape a military crackdown. Forty-eight people have died in gang violence as of mid-July, exceeding the 40 fatalities for all of 2022.
The violence complicates the plight of the Rohingyas. Their return to Myanmar is uncertain while their host, Bangladesh considers them a burden. Squalid conditions in Cox’s Bazar have also made them vulnerable to disasters, like massive fires and typhoons.
Those feelings of frustration and helplessness are being exploited by various armed groups such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) and the Munna Gang.
“We fled from the Myanmar military to save our lives. I hardly imagined that my husband would be killed in our camp by another Rohingya,” Ms Khatun, 31, media.
“I cannot sleep at night. We want to leave the camp. I don’t know what the future holds for me and my sons,” she added.
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, a senior official in charge of Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation commission said drug peddlers were using Rohingya as carriers to smuggle drugs from Myanmar into Bangladesh.
“There are a million people without any opportunities. That creates space for criminals. They are violent and need to be held to account,” Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch told media. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
