The leader of an armed group representing a persecuted Muslim minority from Myanmar was arrested in a raid in neighboring Bangladesh this week and charged under an antiterrorism law.
Ataullah, an ethnic Rohingya and the commander of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, was arrested on Monday, the Bangladeshi police said in a statement. He was captured in Narayanganj District, on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, according to a local police officer. Nine other suspected members of ARSA were also nabbed in raids.
The 10 suspected insurgents were charged under an antiterrorism law at a court in Narayanganj and are now in police custody, Shahinur Alam, the officer in charge at the Siddhirganj Police Station in Narayanganj, said on Wednesday.
Coordinated attacks by ARSA insurgents on security outposts in 2016 and 2017 were used as a pretext for the Myanmar military to launch a scorched-earth campaign of arson, mass rape and killing against the Rohingya minority. Dozens of Rohingya villages were wiped from the map in what the Myanmar military called “security operations.” The United States has labeled the expulsion of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh, which propelled the fastest outflow of refugees in recent history, a genocide.
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Rohingya refugees crossing into Bangladesh in 2017. The United States has labeled their expulsion from Myanmar to Bangladesh a genocide.Credit...Adam Dean for The New York Times
Today, more than a million Rohingya are confined to a series of tent settlements in neighboring Bangladesh, one of which is the largest refugee camp in the world. Gun battles in the camps between rival militant groups, including ARSA, have added yet another layer of trauma to Rohingya life and radicalized a generation of desperate youth.
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