Ukhiya Rohingya Camp: 5 killed in gunfight between 2 gangs

Five Rohingya men were shot dead yesterday in what police said was a gunfight between two gangs at a refugee camp in Ukhiya, Cox's Bazar.

Four of the victims are Anwar Hossain, 24, Muhammad Hamim, 16, Nazibullah, 28, and Nurul Amin, 24, said Amir Zafar, commanding officer of Armed Police Battalion-8, adding one other victim had not been identified yet.

The gunfight took place between the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) around 6:15am in Balukhali, he added.

"We came to know that the victims were ARSA members. Three of them died at the scene while two others were pronounced dead at a hospital," the APBn official said.

Police recovered a firearm and a bullet from the scene, he said, adding that police were looking for the suspects.

The incident happened only a day after a Rohingya community leader was killed at a camp in Ukhiya despite the security measures taken for a visit by International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim AA Khan.

In another incident at the same camp, police around 5:00pm recovered the body of a 45-year-old man named Sanaullah. His throat was slit and there were multiple stab wounds on the body, said Sheikh Mohammad Ali, officer-in-charge of Ukhiya Police Station.

Officers are trying to find out whether the two incidents are linked, he added.

According to police and Rohingya leaders, at least 57 Rohingyas, including 17 community leaders and 11 ARSA members, got killed in clashes over the last six months.

Around 1.2 million Rohingyas are living in the camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas of Cox's Bazar. Most of them came here fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State in 2017.