Gunmen kill 7 in Rohingya refugee camp

BALUKHALI (Bangladesh) • Gunmen killed at least seven people and left others hurt in an assault yesterday on an Islamic seminary in a Rohingya refugee camp on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, police said.

The attackers shot some victims and stabbed others with knives, a regional police chief said.

The killings come as tensions rise in the camps housing more than 900,000 refugees from Myanmar, after a Rohingya community leader was shot dead outside his office three weeks ago.

Four people were killed instantly in yesterday's attack and three others died at a hospital in the Balukhali camp. Police did not say how many people were wounded.

"We arrested one attacker immediately after the incident," said regional chief for an armed police battalion Shihab Kaisar Khan. The man was found with a gun, six rounds of ammunition and a knife.

Many Rohingya activists have gone into hiding since the killing of rights advocate Mohib Ullah by unknown assailants last month.

Some activists have blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) for the killing.

Arsa is the militant group behind attacks on Myanmar security forces in 2017 that set off a military clampdown and an exodus to Bangladesh of 740,000 Rohingya.

The armed outfit has denied the allegations. Activists say there is a "climate of fear" in the camps.

Police said security has been tightened as they investigate the latest shooting.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE