On Sunday, The Bangladesh security officials in the Rohingya refugee camp cited that, the country’s police have started using drones from Thursday to monitor Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar after a peak of crime rate in the area.
According to data from Cox’s Bazar police, in the last four years, at least 104 murders were recorded in Rohingya camps and more than 1,000 cases had been filed against their inhabitants on charges of abduction, extortion, drug dealing, human trafficking and sexual assault.
Superintendent of the Armed Police Battalion that oversees the camp area, Naimul Haque told Arab News, “Incidents in which Rohingya are abducted for ransom are on the rise. Some of the areas in the camp are inaccessible to law enforcers. We can’t go there by vehicle because of the hilly areas. So, we introduced drones last Thursday to monitor the movement of suspects.”
Haque also added that, since late last week, two police operations have already taken place following footage retrieved from drones including the arrest of the brother of the leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, (ARSA) an active rebel group in Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine State
Security analyst retired Air Commodore Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury said, the deployment of drones would help law enforcers expand the scale of surveillance. He said, “Now law enforcers will have better access to the hard-to-reach areas. Improved surveillance will definitely reduce the crime rate in the camp areas.”
