On a quest to change his fortune, Salamat Ullah left his home in Teknaf for Malaysia in October last year.
Crimes, particularly those related to narcotics and murders, have witnessed a significant rise inside the Cox’s Bazar Rohingya camps over the last seven months.
The EU will continue to support the Rohingya people for their right to return to their homeland, said Eamon Gilmore, the EU’s special representative for human rights.
Amid mounting global pressure, a 17-member Myanmar delegation yesterday started verifying the identities of the Rohingya refugees in Teknaf, as the first group of Myanmar’s displaced people is expected to be repatriated in a few months.
Amid the armed conflicts along the border over the last two months, gang members living in the no-man’s-land entered Bangladesh and engaged in criminal activities, including murders, at the refugee camps, police and locals said.
Panic grips the locals in bordering areas of Cox’s Bazar’s Whaikhyang and Bandarban’s Tambru, as heavy gunfire and intermittent shelling on the Myanmar side have been heard again after a pause of 10 days.
As firing and mortar shelling in Myanmar were now heard from Ukhiya border of Cox’s Bazar yesterday, the local authorities warned the boat owners of not carrying Rohingyas amid fear of their fresh entry.
Amid incessant gunfire and mortar shelling in Myanmar close to the Bangladesh border, the local administration is planning to evacuate around 300 families in Ghumdhum union of Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari upazila.
Despite the surrender of 102 top narcos in Teknaf, yaba smuggling continues under the supervision of some listed godfathers and hundi traders who recently launched credit sales of the pink pills.
With one police jeep in front and another behind, four buses brought 102 yaba godfathers and dealers to Teknaf Model Primary School from Cox's Bazar Police Lines around 9:00am yesterday.
For the first time in the country, around 100 yaba godfathers and dealers will surrender today at a formal programme in Teknaf, the entry point for the deadly drug from Myanmar.
One would be mesmerised by the duplex mansions by the 13km road between Teknaf Zero Point and Shah Porir Island. Most of the mansions are in the middle of farmland, forest or just beside the road.
With law enforcers locking up listed drug dealers and smugglers, new groups are filling their shoes adopting generous marketing strategies, including sales on credit. They are also using new routes to smuggle in yaba from Myanmar.
Nahiyan often springs up from bed at midnight and starts looking for her father Akramul Haque, the slain ward councillor of Teknaf municipality. The 12-year-old scurries to her father's bed and breaks down.
Take a trip down the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf highway, and you cannot miss the eye-catching duplex building by the main road near Leda station.
A two-storey training centre inside the secure compound of Cox's Bazar Police Lines is now the “safe home” for 63 alleged yaba godfathers and dealers in the district. At least 24 of them are on the government list of 73 top drug dealers in the country, said a top police official in Cox's Bazar.
Rohingyas living both in Rakhine and Cox's Bazar are in great risk of trafficking and exploitation as they seek a safe and better life after the brutal military crackdown last year, say law enforcers and aid agencies.
Exhausted Rohingyas walking with loads of firewood on their heads used to be a common sight around the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, raising concerns about the long-term impact on the forest.
