Rohingyas rally for rights at home
Thousands of Rohingya people on Sunday held a rally at Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar marking the second anniversary of their exodus into Bangladesh following a crackdown on them by the Myanmar military.
The Rohingya rally was held near the extension field of Camp-4, Block-B at Kutupalong camp, where persecuted Muslim minority people waved different banners and placards seeking dialogue with the Myanmar government to go back home to Rakhine State in Myanmar.
The central theme of the agitation was ‘going home campaign’.
Some of the placards they carried read:`Talk to us,’ ‘Talk to us about rights,’ ‘Talk to us about citizenship and Rohingya ethnicity,’ and ‘Talk to us about security’.
So far, two attempts to send back the displaced Rohingya people to their homeland failed as no family of the community showed up to return to Rakhine on 22 August 2019 and 15 November 2018.
Nurul Islam Majumder, officer-in-charge (investigation), Ukhya police station, said that about one lakh Rohingyas attended the rally that ended peacefully.
At the end of the rally, participants held a special prayer for the victims of the Myanmar military offensive on their community.
Several Rohingya camp leaders, including Mohammad Mohibullah of Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, Abdur Rahim, Hamida Begum and Nurul Alam, spoke on the occasion.
Mohibullah said that the Rohingya people would return home if Myanmar agreed to ensure their citizenship rights with Rohingya ethnicity, security and their right to return to their own land.
More than 7,00,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh after fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by the Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing and genocide, beginning from August 25, 2017.
The latest Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees from that country in Bangladesh to about 11,16,000, according to estimates by UN agencies and Bangladesh foreign ministry.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
