8 Rohingyas killed in 2 Bangladesh ‘gunfights’
The Rapid Action Battalion on Monday said that seven Rohingyas were killed during a ‘gunfight’ in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar.
Another Rohingya crime suspect was also killed in another ‘gunfight’ with the Border Guard Bangladesh in the same upazila early Monday, said BGB sources.
RAB officials said that the seven Rohingyas were killed when a team of the elite force carried out an overnight operation in a hilly forest area behind Camp 27.
All the deceased were members of an armed group named after Zokir, they said.
At a press conference at the Cox’s Bazar RAB office, the officials said that they could so far identify four of the seven suspects.
The four were Nur Hossain, 25, of Block C, Mohammed Faruk, 26, of Block D-5 and Mohammad Imran, 25, of Block D-2 in Camp 27, and Ali Hossain, 25, of Block D-2 in Camp 26.
Camp residents, however, identified the dead as Mohammad Faruk, Nurul Alam alias Nuraya, Mohammad Jamil, Mohammad Jubiar, Mohammad Aias, Bachchu and Aju, all of whom were said to be in between 25 and 30 years.
RAB-15 commanding officer Wing Commander Azim Ahmed led the operation that started at about 5:00am near Jummapara of the Jadimora camp in Teknaf.
The RAB has been looking for Zokir and his associates for a long time for their alleged involvement in abductions, extortion, murders and other crimes in and around the Rohingya camps, said officials.
Lieutenant Mirza Shahed Mahtab, a RAB-15 company commander, told New Age that they seized three foreign-made pistols and bullets along with five locally made weapons from the spot.
‘We exchanged fire with the robbers at predawn hours in the hilly forest area of the Jadimora camp. We are yet to confirm whether Zokir is among the dead but his top associates are among them,’ he added.
He said that they were still looking for Zokir.
‘We missed Zokir just for a while…,’ said one of the officials who joined the operation.
The official said that they identified the group on Sunday night inside Camp 27 and carried out the operation later to avoid any civilian casualties.
Mohammad Nur, a Rohingya leader living at Block A in Camp 27, was taken to the spot following the shooting incident.
He said that he found the bullet-hit bodies lying on the ground separately and that two of them were identified by Rohingyas as Nurul and Faruk.
The police on information visited the place and sent the bodies to the district hospital for autopsy.
Meanwhile, another Rohingya crime suspect was killed in a gunfight with the Border Guard Bangladesh at Hnila in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar early Monday.
Three BGB members were reportedly injured in the gunfight.
BGB officials said that they seized 1,50,000 Yaba pills, one locally-made gun and two bullets from the spot.
The BGB claimed that the shootout took place when three to four people in a boat were trying to smuggle Yaba tablets into Bangladesh from Myanmar.
Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Faisal Hassan Khan, the commanding officer of 2 BGB Battalion in Teknaf, confirmed the shooting death of the suspected drug runner.
Earlier, on February 4, another suspected Rohingya robber was killed in a gunfight with the RAB hours after a dozen other Rohingyas were shot and injured in another shooting incident in the vulnerable Muchuni area of Nayapara Camp in Teknaf.
The RAB headquarters on February 4 issued an acknowledgement of the incident.
‘Elias, a member of the notorious Rohingya robber group led by Zokir, was killed in a gunfight with the RAB in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar. Arms and ammunition were recovered,’ said the RAB HQ acknowledgement.
RAB officials said that they launched a manhunt for Zokir after photos of him brandishing and targeting semi-automatic rifles went viral on social media.
With the latest deaths, at least 75 Rohingyas, including women, were killed in ‘gunfights’ with law enforcement agencies over drug running and peddling, human trafficking and other criminal activities since January 2019.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
