Rohingyas’ involvement in crimes causes concern

A CORRESPONDENT

AGARTALA: Bangladesh is worried over the growing unrest and violence in Rohingya Refugee camps where 21 murders has taken place during last one year.

The trend is causing concern for Indian side also as there are reports of increasing connivance with the drug smuggling rackets active in this region.

The Government of India has alerted the BSF to increase vigil along the border and the State government also activated its Mobile Task Force to prevent any kind of infiltration from across the border. The Tripura government has recently achieved a major success in its drive against smuggling of narcotics items but is worried that with the growing involvement of the Rohingyas in this trade the very purpose will be disturbed. Reports from across the border said apart from murder and drug trafficking the Rohingyas are also getting involved in other type of crimes and several incidents of theft has been reported and many of these incidents are due to competition among themselves to maintain supremacy in the camps.

Cox Bazar police recently told the reporters that most of the murders were the fall out of clashes between the rival groups of the refugees. It said so far 238 cases have been registered against the Rohingyas out of which 68 relating to drug smuggling. What is more worrying for the law and order machinery is the growing impatience among the refugees that turn violent even in very petty matters. Detecting the crimes become very difficult for the police as they are residing in a very congested atmosphere.

A K M Iqbal Hussain, Superintendent of Police, Cox Bazar, told the reporters, as reported in Bangladesh media, that some of the refugee camps are located in remote areas, there is no barricade around the camp and the number of police deployed there are very less. So it became very difficult to notice who is entering into the camp and who is going out. It may be mentioned that over eight lakh Rohingyas has taken shelter in Bangladesh since anti-Rohingya violence started in Mayanmar in August 2017.