Bangladesh arrests notorious Rohingya militant leader

A Rohingya militant leader who directed attacks against Myanmar security forces which precipitated a humanitarian catastrophe was arrested on Tuesday by police in Bangladesh.

Ata Ullah, 48, first surfaced nearly a decade ago as the charismatic leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), an outfit formed to wage an insurgency against the stateless Muslim minority’s persecution in Myanmar.

Their attacks on police posts in 2017 sparked brutal reprisals that eventually sent around 750,000 Rohingya fleeing for their lives into squalid relief camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.

The leader was arrested alongside five associates by the elite Rapid Action Battalion force on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka, while another four of his associates were arrested in the central district of Mymensingh, police said.

Ata Ullah was believed to have personally ordered the 2017 attacks and first came to public attention soon after in videos posted online, where he was seen flanked by masked gunmen and vowing to liberate the Rohingya from “dehumanised oppression”.

ARSA has been accused of killings, abductions, and torture in the refugee camps and the group’s leader has been accused of ordering the murder of Rohingya civic leaders who dared to speak out against the group.

He has also been accused of involvement in the murder of a Bangladeshi military intelligence officer.

Tuesday’s arrest came hours after a regional rights group said at least 65 Rohingya had been killed last year in clashes between rival militant groups competing for influence in Bangladeshi refugee camps.

Ata Ullah’s outfit, its chief rival the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation and other militant groups have for years waged a deadly battle for control of the camps.

Fortify Rights documented 65 deaths last year along with dozens of assaults, abductions and acts of extortion blamed on “militant and criminal groups” in the camps.

The figure is down from 90 killings recorded in 2023 by the rights group.

“Rohingya armed groups are wreaking havoc in Bangladesh and Myanmar with near complete impunity,” the watchdog’s director John Quinley told reporters in Dhaka at the launch of a new report into the violence.

“It’s not only infighting that kills members of these militant outfits. Civilians are also victims.”

The report called on Bangladesh’s government to investigate the violence and hold perpetrators responsible, saying that some cases amounted to potential war crimes that warranted possible prosecution by international courts.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh last week where he promised to do “everything” possible to avoid looming cuts to humanitarian aid.

Funding shortfalls announced by the UN food agency this month could lead to a cut in monthly food vouchers from $12.50 to $6.00 per person at the camps from April.

Successive aid cuts have already caused immense hardship in the overcrowded settlements among Rohingya, who are reliant on aid and suffer from rampant malnutrition.

Bangladesh has struggled for years to support its immense refugee population, and Dhaka has said it is exploring ways to secure additional aid for Rohingya refugees.

On the other hand, India is resisting pleas by Bangladesh to resume issuing normal volumes of medical visas, citing staffing shortages amid worsening ties, six sources said, giving China rare space to expand similar offerings and build people-to-people ties.

The bulk of India’s visas for Bangladeshis in 2023 went to those seeking its affordable private healthcare and Bengali-speaking hospital staff, helping to cement ties between the neighbours and limit China’s regional influence.

“When there is a vacuum, others will come and fill the space,” one of four Bangladesh sources, most of them diplomats, told Reuters. “Some people are going to Thailand and China.”

Since August, India has handed out fewer than 1,000 medical visas each working day, down from a figure of 5,000 to 7,000, said the sources, who all sought anonymity, citing their terms of employment.

Agencies