[ The Quint ] Rohingya Refugees: What is ARSA and Why Are Indian Authorities Concerned?
ARSA, formerly known as Harakah al-Yakin, or ‘Faith Movement’, is currently active among the Rohingya residents in Myanmar and Bangladesh. It claims to be fighting for the rights of the Rohingya population in Myanmar, which were denied by the government.
DPA Note: ARSA = Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
Since 2017, Aman Ullah had been shuttling between India and Bangladesh with the twin objectives of identifying safe spots for the refugees to settle and organising batches from the refugee camps in Bangladesh to sneak into India through secured routes along the border.
He disclosed that he had crossed the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh at Teknaf and proceeded to Jammu and Kashmir through the border in West Bengal. He returned after a few months to reach the refugee camp at Kutupalong in Bangladesh (near Teknaf), where he stayed for eight months. Subsequently, he set foot again in India through a different route via Tripura.
“But it was not until the call data on his two mobile phones were analysed that we began to suspect his linkages with ARSA. Aman Ullah had carved out a big network in India in a brief span,” said an official engaged with the probe.
In the long list retrieved from the call data were three Whatsapp groups where Aman Ullah was actively involved in spreading video footage of ARSA showing functionaries brandishing sophisticated weapons. Members of the investigating group concluded that these were filmed at villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where the rebel group commands support among the Rohingya residents.
These WhatsApp groups were found to be flooded with footage displaying the atrocities by the Myanmar military on the Rohingya and radical audio messages exhorting the members of the community to engage in jihad. The members of these groups, who were mainly from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Pakistan, also welcomed the idea of implementing the Sharia law in a state that would be governed by the Rohingya themselves.
The investigation is still on, with a central security agency also stepping in to gather more details and assess the implication of the efforts being made by Aman Ullah to spread the network in the country.
DPA Notes: ARSA technically is a jihadist terrorist organisation, and is to be totally differentiated from the Arakan Army which is now a proper separatist faction with a standing army and governmental administrative function actively being set up.