Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
Rohingya refugees are reportedly involving with various crimes, including murder, abduction, human trafficking and drug peddling in Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas of Cox’s Bazar as well as in other districts across the country.
All crimes are allegedly being committed led by ’14 terror groups’ with the help of some local men and unscrupulous law enforcing agency men, sources said.
To control the crime, police lodged 471 cases in the last two years, accusing 1,088 persons. Law enforcers say that the crime rates have soared in 34 Rohingya camps. Due to the radical acts of some Rohingyas, others live in terror.
Criminal gangs, active in the camps, often lock into bloody confrontations over control of markets, Yaba smuggling and human trafficking.
A total of 43 Rohingyas were killed in the last two years in what have been described as internal conflicts among these gangs.
During this period, 32 others killed in alleged gunfights with security forces.
Even more than 15,000 girls and women of Rohingya refugees were reportedly raped between August 25, 2017 and August 20 this year, said a report of United Nations.
Nearly 1,100 Rohingyas have been accused in 471 cases — 208 of them related to narcotics — since the influx began in August 2017.
Sources in police and locals said, seven criminal gangs are active at the camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf. The ‘Abdul Hakim gang’ is the most notorious of them. Its members are accused of abduction, extortion, killing, Yaba smuggling, human trafficking and rape.
After dark, crimes are being committed in the camps. Kutupalong Camp leader Mohamamd Yunus Arman, said, “It’s unfortunate to face such anarchy in another country.”
Instead of focusing on returning to our homeland, a section of Rohingyas are carrying out terrorist activities, according to him.
Ukhiya Upazila Parishad Chairman Professor Hamidul Haque Chowdhury said that it is very difficult to control the Rohingyas living at 33 camps.
Locals are suffering from insecurity and anxiety after bids to send back the refugees to their homeland in Myanmar’s Rakhine State failed twice.
The involvement of Rohingyas in crimes and their aggressive attitude are putting them at loggerheads with the locals and the law enforcers. The tipping point was the killing of locals.
Palangkhali Union Parishad Chairman M Gafur Uddin Chowdhury said that the camps have become a heaven for Yaba and crime. “The locals have become helpless and are living in fear.”
RAB-15 Commander Azim Ahmed said that they are conducting drives to tackle crimes at the camps. But neither such drives nor the increased presence of the law enforcers could dispel the fear of the locals.
“We, the Bangalees, aren’t safe here anymore,” said Ayasur Rahman, General Secretary of Cox’s Bazar Bachao Andolan. He said the Rohingyas are becoming desperate.
Rohingya leader of Modhurchora camp of Kutupalong Dil Mohammad said, “The unregistered Rohingyas face discrimination and the newly arrived often face attack after dark.”
Convener of the Rohingya repatriation committee and Ukhiya upazila Awami League President Hamidul Huq Chowdhury observed: “Due to crimes of the Rohingyas, the people of the whole district are in panic, the environment is facing threats.”
