May 9, 2017
Maungdaw- Gangsters belonging to the notorious Abdul Hakim group once again launched an attack in Bassara, Maungdaw North on Saturday.
At around 9pm, the gang surrounded the house of an elderly man named Nurul Islam from whom they had previously demanded extortion money. However, villagers alerted to the presence of the gangs swiftly got together and organised a counter resistance initiative forcing the intruders to retreat into the wilderness.
Two days earlier, the gang kidnapped and killed a local from the village as he was returning home from a neighbouring settlement. The corpse of the victim Hafez Arif Ullah was discovered in the woods the next morning by villagers who had launched a search operation.
Gangsters led by Abdul Hakim have long been operating in the area, frequently executing people who do not pay the extortion money. The gang has bases on both sides of the border and is allegedly backed by Bangladeshi parliamentarian Abdur Rahman Bodi.
