KUTUPALONG: Two Rohingya community leaders were shot dead in one of Bangladesh’s refugee camps, police said on Wednesday, the latest in a string of killings in the settlements.

The sprawling camps house nearly one million Rohingya refugees that fled to Bangladesh after a military offensive in neighbouring Myanmar five years ago.

Police spokesman Kamran Hossain said at least eight suspected Rohingya assailants shot Syed Hossain, 40, and Abu Taleb, 35, at around midnight.

“Both were rushed to hospitals where they were declared dead,” he said, adding that a manhunt was launched and security stepped up in the camps. Police have not named any suspects.

Rohingya sources said that the insurgent Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which operates both in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state and in the Bangladesh camps, was behind the shootings.

In the last three months, ARSA has been blamed for at least five killings including three senior Rohingya leaders, two Rohingya sources said.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2022