Rohingya Muslim leader Mohib Ullah was gunned down by unidentified gunmen in a camp in Cox’s Bazar.
Bangladesh’s foreign minister on Saturday vowed “stern action” against the killers of Rohingya refugee leader Mohib Ullah as calls grew for an investigation into his shooting.
Mohib Ullah, who was in his late 40s, was killed by unidentified gunmen at a camp in Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday night. He led one of the largest community groups since more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar following military action in August 2017.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, in his first remarks after the assassination, said, “The government will take strict action against those involved in the murder. No one will be spared.”
Momen said in a statement that “vested” interests were responsible for the killing as Mohib Ullah wanted to return to Myanmar. “The killers of Mohib Ullah should be brought to justice.”
Mohib Ullah was known as a moderate who advocated for the return of the Rohingya to Myanmar, which had been denied to them during decades of persecution.
He was the leader of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, founded in 2017 to document atrocities against the Rohingya in their native Myanmar and to give them a voice in international dialogue about their future.
But his high profile made him a target of radicals and he received death threats, he told Reuters in 2019, “If I die, I’m fine. I’ll give my life,” he said at the time. .
The killing ignited mourning and anger in the camps, the world’s largest refugee settlement, where some residents interviewed by Reuters said the killings are the latest evidence of rising violence as armed gangs and extremists vie for power.
In a video circulated on social media, his brother, Habib Ullah, who said he witnessed the shooting, blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, an armed group operating in the camps.
“They killed him because he is the leader and all Rohingya follow him,” Habib Ullah said. Before firing, “he said that he cannot be the leader of the Rohingya and there can be no leader for the Rohingya,” he said.
Reuters could not independently verify his account. The ARSA said in a post on Twitter on Friday that it was “shocked and saddened” by the killing and cried “finger-pointing with the baseless and rumoured allegations”.
More than a million Rohingya live in camps the United Nations has said fled neighboring Myanmar during a military crackdown after the coup, which was intended to be genocide.
Myanmar denies committing the genocide, saying it was conducting a legitimate campaign against insurgents attacking police posts.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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