[ WeeklyBlitz ] Rohingya militancy group ARSA silently gets organized

Dhaka Post reporters Adnan Rahman and Joshim Uddin in their report said, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has already recruited over two thousand members from the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, where it has approximately 150 female jihadists. Majority of the ARSA recruits are based in Kutupalong and Balukhali areas in Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf district.

According to sources, members of ARSA are already taking secret preparation of establishing their total control over Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh and finally proclaim it as an ARSA Caliphate.

Dhaka Post report claims, it has received video statement of several ARSA members who have claimed Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh as “part of Arakan”. They said, Rohingyas will permanently stay in Cox’s Bazar and ultimately take control of the area.

embers of ARSA have already started collecting extortions from Bangladeshi citizen by abducting them, almost on a regular basis. At the same time, ARSA members are involved in dealing in yaba as well as selling Rohingya girls and women to various brothels or human trafficking rackets in India and other countries.

A source claimed, the number of ARSA girls and women in various brothels in India are on rise, while a significant number of the ARSA terrorists are entering Indian brothels under the disguise of sex workers. It also said, while hundreds of Rohingya female are also getting employed as housemaids in a number of Middle Eastern countries, they pose threat to internal security of the recruiting countries. These Rohingyas travel to recruiting countries mostly via India and Pakistan with local passports. Organized crime rackets are involved in managing passports for Rohingya females by bribing the passport authorities of the countries concerned.

Another source said, ARSA has established connections with mega-terror outfit Hamas with the target of getting weapons and explosives in exchange for narcotics and cash. Meanwhile, at least 25 ARSA members currently are getting training from Hamas on making explosives and time bombs. Hamas also is giving orientation to these Rohingya ARSA members on suicide bomb attacks.

Myanmar military junta with the motive of having access to the mobile phone communication of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh has set up a mobile phone tower covering 20 kilometers of range, which enables Rohingya refugees in using the service. According to Dhaka Post, distance of Hwang Kyung village is within just 10 kilometers of Bangladesh-Myanmar border. In Hwang Kyung, Myanmar’s state-owned mobile phone company ‘MPT’ has set up two powerful towers, enabling Rohingyas in easily using ‘MPT’ SIM cards in their mobile phones. Most of the members of trans-border drug trafficking racket as well as their Bangladeshi counterpart are using ‘MPT’ connections particularly for communicating on various criminal purposes, including yaba trafficking and trade. Myanmar authorities are fully aware of the multi-million-dollar yaba trade within Myanmar-Bangladesh border, while the military junta reportedly is rather encouraging the yaba smugglers in selling this drugs amongst Bangladeshi and Indian buyers in particular.