A human rights group called United Youth Movement Bangladesh organized a protest on Friday against the ongoing genocide of Rohingya people by the terrorist Arakan Army. The protest was held in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka, following the Jummah prayers.
During the protest, General Secretary of the organization, Taufiq Elahi, delivered a powerful speech, stating, “In our South Asia region, there exists a community that has been subjected to systematic persecution, violence, and genocide for nearly a hundred years. This community is the eternally oppressed Rohingya people, whose ancestral home is in the Arakan State of Myanmar. Today, however, they are treated as unwanted in their own homeland, punished simply for being Muslim. The violence that began nearly a century ago against them continues unabated, stripping them of their right to education, religious freedom, and basic human dignity. Their future has been plunged into deep darkness.”
He went on to highlight that the Rohingya people have been victims of state-sponsored ethnic cleansing, aimed at wiping out their existence from Arakan. “The goal has always been to make the region free of Rohingyas, and even today, they are subjected to relentless torture, murder, rape, and looting in Arakan. Over the last century, countless numbers of Rohingyas have been killed, and no one knows the full extent of the atrocities,” Elahi said.
Referring to the horrific genocide in 2017, the speakers pointed out that more than 36,000 Rohingyas were brutally murdered by Myanmar’s junta and the terrorist Arakan Army, while over 50,000 women were raped. It was this barbarity that forced over a million Rohingyas to seek refuge in Bangladesh. “The very group responsible for the horrors of 2017—the Arakan Army—continues their terror to this day. Their ancestors were the notorious Magh pirates, who for centuries, kidnapped Rohingyas and Bengalis and sold them as slaves. The Arakan Army, as their successors, is now continuing the same brutal agenda,” he said.
The speakers also pointed out the growing international concern about the situation, citing Human Rights Watch, which reported that the Arakan Army, in pursuit of its geopolitical strategy, is forcibly displacing thousands of Rohingyas from Arakan, pushing them to the Bangladesh border. Despite this, the Rohingya people do not want to stay in Bangladesh. They wish to return to their homeland with honor and security.
In just a few months, from April to October 2023, the Arakan Army has reportedly burned down over 48 Rohingya villages, displacing between 170,000 to 180,000 people and killing over 5,000 Rohingyas. The group also carried out drone attacks in the town of Maungdaw on the 4th and 5th of last month, killing more than 200 Rohingyas and subjecting many women to rape.
Adding to the distress, the Arakan Army has also been involved in international human trafficking, with reports stating that they have trafficked nearly 150,000 Rohingyas since 2017. In Bangladesh, the group is responsible for smuggling drugs, particularly yaba, with the Drug Control Authority of Bangladesh estimating that they smuggle drugs worth $35 million annually. This drug trade has wreaked havoc on Bangladeshi youth, leading to widespread addiction and social decay.
The protestors expressed deep concern that the Arakan Army’s activities are not limited to drug smuggling. Their ambitions include taking full control of the Bay of Bengal sea routes and destabilizing Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts region by supplying arms to local insurgent groups.
“We cannot remain silent in the face of such a crisis,” the protestors declared. “If the Arakan Army continues their campaign of genocide and labels Rohingyas as ‘Bengali terrorists,’ they will eventually seize all of Arakan, and the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh may never return home. This is deeply worrying.”
They called on the interim government of Bangladesh to take immediate action to protect the country’s sovereignty and to press for the international community to label the Arakan Army as a terrorist organization. They urged the government to raise the issue of the Rohingya genocide in international courts and ensure that the Arakan Army cannot conduct operations in Bangladesh’s hill tracts. The speakers also demanded that the Rohingya refugees be allowed to return to their homeland with dignity and security.
The protest was also addressed by United Youth Movement Bangladesh’s President Mu. Dayeef Solemun and Media Secretary Khubaib Mahmud.
