BD police shoot dead two Rohingya in refugee camp

TEKNAF: Bangladesh police said they had shot dead two Rohingya refugees during a gunfight in a refugee camp on Saturday after the pair were accused of killing a ruling party official.

Nearly a million Rohingya live in squalid camps in southeast Bangladesh, 740,000 of whom fled a 2017 military offensive against the Muslim minority in Myanmar. Rights activists, who asked not to be named, said they believe the two Rohingya men were killed by police in what appeared to be a staged encounter.

The incident comes two days after a second failed attempt to repatriate the refugees, which saw not a single Rohingya turn up to return across the border to conflict-scarred Rakhine state. Awami League official Omar Faruk was shot in the head on Thursday, at a settlement near the border town of Teknaf.

His murder had sparked anger among the local population, with hundreds of furious people blocking a key highway leading to the camps for hours, burning tyres and vandalising shops visited by refugees.

Ahmad said the two men killed on Saturday had been identified as key suspects in Faruk’s killing and added that they had been shot while the officers were ambushed by the suspected criminals.

Refugees said the recent bloodshed has created an atmosphere of fear in the camps, where security has been tightened. The killings came as the Rohingya are set to commemorate the second anniversary of their mass influx into Bangladesh from Rakhine after the brutal military campaign.