Over 740,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in August 2017 after the Myanmar military carried out ‘clearance operations’ killing thousands of Rohingya people. The camps are now home to over 920,000 Rohingya people today. Refugees in the Bangladesh camps can’t work, don’t have freedom of movement, and have limited free speech.

Years after the mass exodus, Sabikun Nahar fears the Myanmar military still wants to kill them. But another ominous danger lurks from within the camps themselves.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Rohingya militant group, has been spreading terror across the settlements. Over the last few years, they have reportedly kidnaped, abused, and murdered multiple people in efforts to maintain control.

......Formerly known as Al-Yaaqin, ARSA is the Rohingya insurgent group that launched coordinated deadly attacks on Myanmar officials in August 2017, sparking the military’s ruthless response.

But despite their self proclaimed image as freedom fighters, they have become a dangerous menace within the Rohingya camps, now targeting their own people.

In the last six months, police have arrested over 800 Rohingya with suspected ARSA links. Former Major General Shahidul Haque, a previous defence attache to Myanmar for Bangladesh, told the Globe that as long as ARSA is active, the camps will remain unsafe.

“The civil leaders of the Rohingya are being targeted and killed,” he said. “Such murders are a very big challenge, because ARSA, or those involved in such murders, are mainly working for the Myanmar military.”