Are Rohingya refugee camps perfect recruitment grounds for terrorist groups?

Bangladesh has stepped up security efforts in Rohingya camps over fears the squalid settlements could be perfect recruitment grounds for terror groups.

Dhaka, Jan 1: Intelligence officials have warned that Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are being eyed by Islamic terror organisations for new recruits.

The recent arrest of an Islamic terrorist near Rohingya refugee camps in the country in a way proves the fear of intelligence officials true.

On Sunday, the Bangladesh police arrested a suspected Islamic terrorist from the border district of Ukhia, near camps where thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar have taken shelter.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite police tasked with tackling Islamic extremism in the Muslim-majority country, said it detained 30-year-old Sharful Awal for allegedly communicating with international Jihadist groups.

Awal was freed on bail in January last year after he was charged with anti-terrorism and explosives-related offences in the Chittagong region, RAB local chief Ruhul Amin said in a statement.

But after his release, Awal "communicated with various international militant groups through social media in an effort to establish Khilafat (a caliphate) through so-called Jihad," Amin said.

Police allege Awal is a member of a new faction of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a homegrown Islamic terrorist group, and was involved in organising local extremists.

The new JMB faction has been blamed for a wave of attacks on foreigners and religious minorities, including the deadly attack on a posh Dhaka cafe last year in which 18 foreigners were shot and hacked to death.

But the RAB's Amin said authorities have not found any connections so far between Awal and Rohingya refugees.

An estimated 655,000 Rohingya have left Myanmar since late August to escape what UN officials have termed ethnic cleansing with possible "elements of genocide".

Most of the refugees have settled in Bangladesh's southeastern border areas like Ukhia.

Bangladeshi authorities have stepped up security and surveillance efforts in the Rohingya camps over fears the squalid settlements could be perfect recruitment grounds for homegrown and international extremist groups.

The country's border forces have also tightened patrols to prevent Rohingya militants -- who have carried out a series of attacks on Myanmar security posts since October last year -- from entering Bangladesh territory.

However, activists working for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh stated that the camp inmates are poor and vulnerable people and they need help from one and all to bring normalcy into their lives.

"The idea that refugees could be easily recruited by terrorist organisations is a false impression. Rohingyas are poor and homeless, but they are not terrorists," said a local activist, who works for the children in Rohingya refugee camps.

OneIndia News