KUTUPALONG MAKESHIFT CAMP, Bangladesh: As fellow Muslims were celebrating the end of Ramadhan late in June, Noor Ankis and her neighbours buried her husband at the refugee camp in Bangladesh where he had lived for years.
Mohammed Ayub’s body — his throat slit and hands tied behind his back — had been found dumped in a desolate corner of the camp for Rohingya Muslims who have fled neighbouring Myanmar.
Thirty-year-old Ayub was one of three Rohingya men whose bodies were found over the past few weeks. Aid workers and long-time residents say the incidents, along with the stabbing of a community leader, amount to the worst violence in the camps since the Rohingya began fleeing Buddhist-majority Myanmar more than a quarter of a century ago.
Refugees, whose numbers have swelled since fighting late last year in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, also report masked men roaming the dark streets of the two camps in Kutupalong at night.
Bangladesh police and aid workers say a struggle for control of supplies to the camps is behind the violence.
“They beat me and my sister and dragged him out of the house,” Ankis said, as her 7- and 3-year-old children slept by her on the newly cemented floor.
“The kidnappers called me from his number and threatened to kill me too. I’m also getting threats in the name of Al Yaqin.”
She was referring to the militant group Harakah al Yaqin, or “Faith Movement”, whose attacks on Myanmar border police posts in October prompted a security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians.
Police say it is unclear whether the insurgent group, which now wants to be known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, was involved in the violence in the camps or whether others were using its name to intimidate refugees. The group, whose leader spoke in an interview in March, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled northwestern Rakhine state to Bangladesh over recent months, joining tens of thousands already there. Myanmar’s military and government have denied almost all allegations of atrocities by security forces.
While the government announced the end of its counterinsurgency operation in February, tensions in Myanmar have risen again in recent days after village administrators were murdered and troops killed three people while clearing a Rohingya militant camp. — Reuters
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