A court in Cox’s Bazar has granted 22 Rohingya men, the residents of refugee camps in Bangladesh and crossed the border to Myanmar’s Rakhine state and returned with weapons, on a three-day remand.
Cox’s Bazar Senior Judicial Magisrate Srigyan Tanchanga on Monday granted the remand plea after hearing a 10-day remand plea to interrogate the men.
The 22 Rohingya were identified as Md Hossain Ahmed, 30, Md Rafiq, 23, Ayatullah, 30, Md Junaid, 19, Md Harun, 23, Md Kaisar, 19, Md Saber, 19, Osama, 19, Faruk, 19, Md Sadek, 19, Harun-or-Rashid, 24, Yasin Arafat, 19, Md Ismail, 19, Md Rahim, 19, Noju Molla, 38, Syed Ullah, 19, Hafez Ahmed, 19, Md Jubair, 19, Abdullah, 20, Enamul Hassan, 22, Md Raik, 24, Syedul Islam, 24, and Md Arman, 21.
However, one of the 23 Rohingya men, who were arrested, was not brought to court as he had fallen sick in jail after his arrest.
Earlier, police sought a 10-day remand for 23 Myanmar nationals in a case filed by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). They were arrested from the Palongkhali border in Ukhiya upazila.
Local representatives and locals detained them and handed them over to the police.
On February 6, some armed individuals along with 23 Rohingya men infiltrated through the border Myanmar border near the Cox’s Bazar border in Ukhiya during the ongoing firing between Myanmar forces and armed insurgent group.
On February 9, BGB handed them over to police with 12 weapons and filed a case over weapons charges as the plaintiff.
On Saturday, police brought the 23 Rohingya men before the court of Cox’s Bazar Senior Judicial Magistrate pleading for 10 days to interrogate them in police custody.
But Judge Fahmida Sattar took the matter under consideration and set Sunday for a hearing.
BGB sources said, “The 23 Rohingya who entered from Myanmar carrying weapons are residents of camps in Ukhiya’s Balukhali and Kutupalong. For obvious reasons, they are not allowed to leave the camp and enter Myanmar.”
It is urgently necessary to interrogate them to find out where they went and why they returned with weapons, they said.
NY
