Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Thursday said the allegations of Human Rights Watch about Armed Police Battalion (APBn) committing extortion, arbitrary arrests, and harassment of Rohingya refugees is not fact-based.
“I think they [HRW] should create such reports after visiting and gathering additional data,” he said.
He made these remarks while talking to reporters at a program at Bangla Academy premises in Dhaka University area.
“Rohingyas are killing each other in the camps. They are even bringing yabas from Myanmar by cutting the barbed wire fence along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border,” the home minister said.
“Such incidents are happening constantly in Rohingya camps. A DGFI officer has been killed in the camp. There were also firing incidents on Wednesday. Houses have been burnt as well. As we are seeing a lot of bloodshed in the camps, Armed Police Battalion (APBn) has been deployed besides normal police. They are just doing their routine work,” he added.
On Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch alleged that Bangladesh's Armed Police Battalion (APBn) is committing extortion, arbitrary arrests, and harassment of Rohingya refugees, and urged donor governments to play a role in ending such abuses.
The HRW said it considered reports by 40 refugees in October and November last year. It has also reviewed police reports, documenting more than 16 cases of severe abuse by members of APBn, who took over security in the Rohingya camps in July 2020.
The HRW statement came at a time when killings of Rohingyas in armed fighting and yaba smuggling and human trafficking by Rohingya have prompted the authorities to take stricter measures to maintain law and order.
