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Agence France-Presse

Gunmen killed seven people and wounded at least 20 in an assault on Friday in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, police and a doctor said, an attack that heightens tensions after the recent shooting of a prominent community leader.
The attackers shot and stabbed people attending an Islamic school in the camp, a regional police chief said.
Four people died instantly. Three others died at a hospital in one of the camps in the Balukhali refugee complex, part of a bigger network of squalid settlements housing 900,000 people.
Police did not say how many were wounded but a doctor with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) who requested anonymity said about 20 people were badly hurt.
“About 20 seriously injured people came to our hospital, many with no arms, no legs or no eyes. Their condition is very bad,” the doctor said.
Police official Kamran Hossain said “Rohingya miscreants” entered the Darul Ulum Nadwatul Ulama al Islamia madrasa before dawn and “randomly hacked and shot people inside”.
New Delhi camp blaze exposes plight of India’s Rohingya refugees
Security forces immediately sealed off the camp, which houses more than 27,000 people.
Camp residents shared images on social media of bodies on the floor of the madrasa. The images could not be independently verified.
“We arrested one attacker immediately after the incident,” local police chief Shihab Kaisar Khan told reporters.
The man was found with a gun, six rounds of ammunition and a knife, he added.


Many Rohingya activists have gone into hiding or sought protection from the police and UN agencies since the killing of rights advocate Mohib Ullah by unknown assailants in a nearby Balukhali camp.
The 48-year-old teacher had become a leading moderate voice for the stateless community.
Some activists have blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the killing. ARSA is the militant group behind attacks on Myanmar security forces in 2017 that set off a military clampdown and a mass exodus into Bangladesh of 740,000 Rohingya.
It has condemned Ullah’s killing in a Twitter statement and denied any involvement.
Police say at least five people have been arrested for Ullah’s murder. But activists say there is mounting fear of more violence in the camps.
“Security was tightened after Ullah’s death. But in less than a month seven people have been killed. How can we trust the increased security?” said one refugee, Hakim, who asked to use only one name.

A prominent Rohingya expatriate who knew the madrasa teachers blamed ARSA for the shooting, saying the school had refused to pay the group.
“Since last year ARSA has ordered all madrasas to pay them 10,000 taka (US$120) a month and every teacher 500 taka a month. But the madrasa which was attacked today refused,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he fears his relatives in the camps could be targeted.
“ARSA carried out the killings to establish their full control in the camps. After Mohib Ullah’s killing, this carnage was a kind of stern message sent by the militant group.”
A rights worker confirmed “the seminary never recognised ARSA’s control in the camps,”
There was no comment on Friday from ARSA.
Bangladesh arrests three after Rohingya leader’s murder
Human Rights Watch said in a statement this month that at least a dozen activists have approached the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, since the killing of Ullah.
Many said they had been threatened by militants.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called Ullah’s death “a clear example of the insecurity in the camp, and the apparent attempts to silence moderate civil society voices”.
Other activists said the camp’s narrow streets are taken over by militants and criminals after dark as police barely patrol at night.
“They [police] seem intimidated and reluctant. A serious tension lingers within the camps since Ullah’s murder,” Kyaw Min, a leader of Ullah’s Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), said.
Bangladesh police have insisted that full security is assured.


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Rohingya Muslims

Gunmen kill 7 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh camp

A Rohingya refugee camp in Balukhali, Bangladesh. File photo: AP

Members of the Armed Police Battalion (APBN) stand guard near the office of slain community Rohingya leader Mohib Ullah, who was shoot dead by gunmen last month, at Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia on October 6, 2021. (Photo by Munir uz zaman / AFP)

Bangladesh arrests members of Rohingya insurgent group after refugee leader’s murder

Bangladesh police officials stand guard near the crime scene after the Mohib Ullah a top Rohingya community leader, was shot dead in Cox’s Bazaar. Photo: EPA-EFE

FILE PHOTO: Mohib Ullah, a Rohingya Muslim leader from the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, speaks on a phone at his residence in Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, April 21, 2018. Picture taken April 21, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain//File Photo

epa09497189 Rohingya refugees gathered as they attend the funeral of the Mohib Ullah, a top Rohingya community leader, after he was shot dead in Cox Bazaar, Bangladesh 30 September 2021. Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Mohib Ullah as he was attending evening prayers at around 8:00 pm (1400 GMT) on 29 September 2021 EPA-EFE/TANBIRUL MIRAJ RIPON

Wirathu, the Myanmar monk labelled ‘the face of Buddhist terror’, released from prison after charges dropped

Wirathu founded a nationalist organisation that was accused of inciting violence against Muslims. Photo: AP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 22, 2018, Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi waits to greet Wang Zhengwei, vice chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), in Naypyidaw. - Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi will hear the first testimony against her in a junta court on June 14, 2021, more than four months after a military coup. (Photo by - / POOL / AFP)

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The attackers shot some victims and stabbed others with knives at an Islamic seminary in the Balukhali camp
The assault came amid mounting tensions after a Rohingya community leader was killed outside his office three weeks ago



The attackers shot some victims and stabbed others with knives at an Islamic seminary in the Balukhali camp.


Bangladesh

Myanmar

Human rights

Gunmen kill 7 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh camp

The attackers shot some victims and stabbed others with knives at an Islamic seminary in the Balukhali camp The assault came amid mounting tensions after a Rohingya community leader was killed outside his office three weeks ago

The attackers shot some victims and stabbed others with knives at an Islamic seminary in the Balukhali camp

The assault came amid mounting tensions after a Rohingya community leader was killed outside his office three weeks ago