Dhaka: A prominent Rohingya Muslim leader has been shot dead in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh.
Mohibullah, who was in his late 40s, led one of the largest of several community groups to emerge since more than 730,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya fled Myanmar amid a brutal military crackdown in August 2017.
He was talking to other refugee leaders outside his office after attending evening prayers when an unidentified gunman shot him at least three times, Mohammad Nowkhim, a spokesman of Ullah’s Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARPSH), said.
A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the agency was “deeply saddened” by the killing.
Amnesty International urged a thorough investigation into Mohibullah’s death and for the Bangladeshi authorities and UN refugee agency to work together to ensure the protection of people living in the camps, which the group said were facing an “increasing problem” of violence often linked to the control of illicit drugs.
Invited to the White House and to speak to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Mohibullah was one of the most high-profile advocates for the Rohingya whose treatment is now the subject of a genocide investigation in The Hague.
In August 2019, he organized a massive rally at Kutapalong camp, the main Rohingya settlement, which some 200,000 Rohingya attended. The rally confirmed his position as a leader among the refugees.
