Rohingyas involved with serious crimes

Syed Shemul Parvez :
The Rohingya community, who came to Bangladesh from Myanmar, has been involved with various kinds of crimes viz. kidnapping, drug peddling, illegal trading of counterfeit money, contract killing, robbery and gold smuggling in the Ukhia and Teknaf upazilas of Cox’s Bazar.
Kidnapping is now a regular occurrence in the Rohingya camps and the hills, and the overall situation in Cox’s Bazar has been deteriorating day by day.
According to locals, the most serious things in the district are Yaba smuggling and the influx of Rohingyas.
They (Rohingyas) are now not only limited to drug dealing; they are also involved with major crimes like robbery, extortion and contract killing.
Experts, however, think that their recent activities have become a big threat to the local community as well as the whole Bangladesh!
Law enforcers said most of the criminals who are involved with these serious crimes were identified as Rohingyas.
The Rohingyas are hard to control even though hundreds from the community have been arrested and charged with numerous crimes in the past years, police said.
The Narcotics Control Department said in the last six years 462 Rohingya men and women have been arrested from Chattogram.
Moreover 1,329,825 pieces of yaba, some Tk190,000 and three gold bars were recovered their possession in different times.
Sources said that 13 Rohingyas were arrested in 2017, 30 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 91 in 2020, 186 in 2021, and 116 till June 2022 with drugs, money and gold bars.
On Sunday, four farmers were allegedly abducted by Rohingyas in Teknaf upazila of the district.
The four victim farmers have been identified as Abdus Salam, Abdur Rahman, Muhib Ullah and Abdul Hakim of the Lechuaprang area of Hnila union.
According to locals, they were there at the time of the incident.
Abdus Salam’s younger brother, Munshi Rafiq, said a group of wild elephants came from the mountains to the cornfield on Saturday night. He added that the four farmers, including his brother, were sleeping after driving them toward the mountain. The Rohingya criminals kidnapped them at gunpoint, Rafiq claimed. “When we went to the field the next morning, we found their bloodstained shoes and clothes,” he said.
Rashed Mahmud Ali, Chairman of Hnila union parishad, said: “I have received information about the abduction. Police have been notified. We have called for a search and rescue operation.”
Confirming the matter, Teknaf Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Abdul Halim said two teams are preparing for the rescue operation. “More details will be given later,” he said.
Earlier on January 3, Bangladesh Coast Guard arrested 6 Rohingya dacoits along with 14 firearms, 486 rounds of bullets, drugs and law enforcement uniforms in a raid from Shahpori Island in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar.
The arrested persons have been identified as Mohammad Ibrahim (23), son of one Hossain Ahmed, a resident of Rohingya camp number 13 in Teknaf, Arif Hossain (33), son of one Sultan Ahmed, Mahmudur Rahman (18), son of Noor Hakim, Amin (33), son of one Nurul Islam, a resident of Rohingya Camp-22 Unchuprang, Kaniz (24), son of one Hashem and Nabi Hossain, son of one Syed Ahmed, a resident of Rohingya Camp-14 in Balukhali area of Ukhia. 28).
In this regard, when asked, Dr Farzana Rahman, Professor and Chairman of Criminology Department, University of Dhaka told the New Nation that Rohingya issue has become one of vital fact for our country. If government cannot deal with it properly, we may face more dangerous situation and challenging.
Actually Rohingya are stateless refugees and took shelter in Bangladesh and every day they are facing various problems and passing many challenges being deprived citizenship. Considering all limitation they are supposed to do various things like kidnapping, drug peddling, illegal trading of counterfeit money, contract killing, robbery and gold smuggling, She said.
To solve this problem, government has to take more Sharpe steps especially on the international diplomacy.
Developing diplomatic relation with the Myanmar state, government can reduce this crisis , Dr. Farzana added.
The Rohingya people are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and resided in Rakhine State, Myanmar.
After the military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state on August 25, 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingyas – mostly children and women – crossed over to Bangladesh.
They joined more than 400,000 existing refugees who were already living in squalid, cramped camps in Cox’s Bazar.