Members of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) have seized more than 2 million yaba tablets and a large cache of firearms including some M16 assault rifles from 11 Rohingya camps in Ukhiya upazila of Cox’s Bazar in the last 16 months.
According to the APBn-8 sources, the law enforcers have been raiding in 11 Rohingya camps in Ukhiya since February 14 last year with the aim to control crime.
In these operations, as many as 2,003,300 pieces of yaba tablets as well as 14 domestic and foreign firearms including American-made M-16 rifles and 235 different types of sharp weapons were seized.
Besides, 972 people were arrested during the operations while 91 bhori gold, Tk66 lakh in cash, fake notes worth of Tk82,000, 3 lakh Kyat (Myanmar currency), and a number of banned goods were seized.
Of the arrestees, 438 were accused in 335 cases.
Kamran Hossain, additional superintendent of APBn-8, said: “The operations to control crime would continue in the days to come as well.”
The congested refugee camps in the coastal district host over 1.1 million Rohingya who fled neighboring Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017.
According to data from Cox’s Bazar police, at least 104 murders were recorded in Rohingya camps in the past four years, and more than 1,000 cases had been filed against their inhabitants on charges of abduction, extortion, drug dealing, human trafficking and sexual assault till January this year.
Meanwhile, a previous news report claimed that around 14 armed criminal gangs were active in the 34 Rohingya refugee camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazar.