Gun-making shop near Ukhiya Rohingya camp for joining arms struggle in Myanmar

We are deeply concerned that an illegal gun-making shop has been unearthed at a place adjacent to a Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhiya Upazila. A news report published in this national daily on Tuesday said, based on secret information, a team of RAB-15 raided the area. But sensing its presence, some alleged criminals opened fire, forcing the RAB members to retaliate. After a four-hour “gunfight”, the RAB team managed to take over the veritable arms factory early Monday morning and arrested three people from the spot along with 10 firearms and equipment used to manufacture weapons.
So long, illegal firearms and ammunition used to be smuggled into the country through borders with neighbouring India and Myanmar, posing a serious threat to our national security. Clandestine gun or bomb-making shops were unearthed in the country also in the past. It’s a new development in Ukhiya where the Rohingya Refugee Camp is located. RAB members are reportedly interrogating the arrestees and looking for other suspects and similar shops inside Rohingya camps or in the Cox’s Bazar area. The arrested Rohingyas allegedly used to sell weapons to criminal groups in Dhaka, Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar. Such illegal trade in weapons benefits not only petty criminals, but also the more dangerous criminal gangs in Rohingya camps and elsewhere in the country at the cost of social peace and harmony.
 It may be noted that on October 22, six people were killed and over a dozen injured in a gun attack in Ukhiya’s Bali Khali camp. The attack took place 23 days after Muhib Ullah, former chairman of Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, also an avowed supporter of the repatriation of the Rohingyas to Myanmar, was assassinated at his office in Ukhiya’s Kutupalong camp. Since August 2017, at least 226 Rohingyas have been killed and some 1,298 cases filed accusing 2,850 individuals, mostly in connection with possession of drugs and firearms. Police have arrested 1,747 Rohingya suspects. The cases focus on 10 types of crimes, including possession of arms and drugs, rape, murder, robbery and human trafficking.
We apprehend that the situation around the refugee camps might further deteriorate if the process of Rohingya repatriation is delayed. If they have no peaceful way to Myanmar then they have to prepare themselves for armed struggle.