The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, an armed group based in Myanmar’s Rakhine, has murdered civilian leader Mohammad Mohib Ullah to stop the repatriation of the Rohingyas from Bangladesh, police say.
Cox’s Bazar Public Prosecutor Faridul Alam said the investigators echoed the family’s claim that ARSA planned and carried out the killing of Mohib Ullah.
“ARSA and others against repatriation were angry at Mohib Ullah because of his popularity,” he said.
More than 700,000 of the 1.1 million refugees in Bangladesh crossed the border in 2017 after a brutal Myanmar military crackdown dubbed “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by the UN. The Myanmar military launched the operation in retaliation for deadly attacks on border posts claimed by ARSA.
Earlier, police have pressed formal charges against 29 people in the murder of Rohingya leader Mohammad Mohib Ullah.
The chargesheet was submitted with Ukhia's Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court on Monday, at the end of an eight-and-a-half-month investigation.
Cox's Bazar's Additional Superintendent of Police Rafiqul Islam said all of the accused are members of the Rohingya community.
Mohib Ullah, 48, was shot dead by a group of assailants at his office in the Kutupalong camp in Ukhia on September 29, 2021.
He was one of the most prominent advocates for the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
Prior to his death, he had been serving as the chairman of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights.
The group was founded in 2017 to document atrocities against Rohingya in their native Myanmar and give them a voice in international talks about their future.
He had also represented the Rohingya community at the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2019.
Mohib Ullah's family moved to Canada in April amid growing concerns about their safety in the refugee settlement.
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