Police arrest man with 'direct involvement' in murder of Rohingya activist Mohib Ullah

Although several suspects in the murder of prominent Rohingya activist Mohib Ullah have already been arrested, police say they have now caught a man who was directly involved in the killing.

Law enforcers have also uncovered the reason behind the murder, which will be disclosed to the media in a briefing on Saturday afternoon, according to SP Md Naimul of Ukhiya-14 Armed Police Battalion (APBn).

Mohib Ullah, 48, led an organisation called Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights. He was shot dead around 8:30 pm on Sept 29 at his office in the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar.

He had represented the Rohingya community at the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2019.

For years, he was one of the most prominent advocates for the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority from Myanmar. The organisation he led was founded in 2017 to document atrocities against Rohingya in their native Myanmar and give them a voice in international talks about their future.

His brother Habib Ullah said about 15-20 face covered people were in the group who shot Mohib to death on the night of the incident.

Mohib’s family suspects that the Bangladesh unit of the armed group Arkan Republican Salvation Army in Myanmar are behind the murder. For long the family predicted that he would be killed by the hardliners who regularly sent him death threats.

Soon after the murder, the United Nations and the United States spoke out over the killing of the Rohingya refugee leader and called on Bangladeshi authorities to investigate his shooting.

Rafiqul Islam, a police official in Bangladesh, said to the media that Mohib Ullah had not filed complaints about the threats or sought police protection.

"If he did, we could have considered that," he said.

Most of the 1.1 million Rohingyas who fled the Myanmar government crackdown at different times are now living under the shelter of Bangladesh in crowded Cox’s Bazar camps.