Top Rohingya leader in Bangladesh shot dead

File image of head of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights Mohibullah, who was killed on 29 September. Twitter @hrw

The brother of the international representative of ethnic Rohingya refugees Mohibullah, who was killed on Wednesday, Habibullah, on Thursday, blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the former’s murder.  On Wednesday, unidentified attackers shot Mohibullah at the Kutupalong refugee camp at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar district. He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead. So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

What Habibullah says

Habibullah told AFP that his brother received death threats from the ARSA in recent months and at least eight men from the group took part in the attack.

“ARSA forces have committed this murder. They often threatened to kill my brother from different (phone) numbers,” he said. “ARSA did not just kill our brother, they killed our great leader.”

Police have said at least four unidentified assailants were involved in the shooting, which happened as Mohibullah chatted with other community leaders outside his office.

However, there has been no immediate comment on Thursday from ARSA, which was behind a spate of attacks on Myanmar security posts in 2017 and is also blamed for attacks on Hindus living in the Rohingya villages in the country’s western Rakhine province.

What Mohibullah’s colleagues say

A senior member of Mohibullah’s group also blamed ARSA, saying the militant group was enraged by his growing popularity in the refugee camps and his work, which gave the “Rohingya a non-violent, progressive and liberal voice of reason”.

Rights activist Nur Khan Liton said Mohibullah told him earlier this month that he had received death threats from ARSA after his rights group expanded to all the Rohingya refugee camps.

“His peaceful activism angered ARSA,” Liton told AFP.

Saad Hammadi from Amnesty International said the killing “sends a chilling effect across the entire community”, calling on Dhaka to speed up the investigation.

What Dhaka Police says

Police spokesman Rafiqul Islam said the probe was still at a preliminary stage and no one has been arrested yet.

What human rights activists say

Human Rights Watch called Mohibullah a vital voice for the Rohingya community. “He always defended the rights of the Rohingya to safe and dignified returns and to have a say in the decisions concerning their lives and future. His killing is a stark demonstration of the risks faced by those in the camps who speak up for freedom and against violence,” Meenakshi Ganguly, the rights group’s South Asia director, said in a statement.

“Mohibullah’s death undermines not only the struggle of Rohingya refugees for greater rights and protection in the refugee camps but also their efforts to safely return to their homes in Myanmar. Bangladesh authorities should urgently investigate Mohibullah’s killing along with other attacks on Rohingya activists in the camps,” she said.

Amnesty International condemned the killing and urged Bangladeshi authorities and the UN Refugee Agency to work together to ensure the protection of people in the camps, including refugees, activists and humanitarian workers from both the Rohingya and local community, many of whom have shared concerns about their safety.

“Violence in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar has been a growing problem,” said Saad Hammadi, Amnesty International’s South Asia campaigner. “Armed groups operating drug cartels have killed people and held hostages. The authorities must take immediate action to prevent further bloodshed.”

Overall, Bangladesh has been sheltering more than 1.1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar after previous waves of persecution.

Who was Mohibullah?

Mohibullah had set up the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), a community-based rights group that documented atrocities allegedly committed against the group by the Myanmar military during a 2017 offensive. He had emerged as a key refugee leader and a spokesman representing the Muslim ethnic group in international meetings. He visited the White House in 2019 for a meeting on religious freedom with then-President Donald Trump and spoke about the suffering and persecution faced by Rohingya in Myanmar.

Later, the same year, the former schoolteacher was bitterly criticised by Bangladeshi media after he led a massive rally of 200,000 refugees to mark the second anniversary of the crackdown by Myanmar’s military that caused about 700,000 Rohingya, including Mohibullah, to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.