'Rohingya' men held in Dhaka

Sun, Sep 11th, 2011 1:13 pm BdST

Dhaka, Sept 11 (bdnews24.com) — Six Rohingya men bearing fake Bangladeshi passports have been arrested at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport when they have tried to pass the immigration to go to Saudi Arabia. 

They were arrested around 8:30pm on Sunday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police's senior assistant  

superintendent Selim Khan told bdnews24.com Selim said their passports had fake address,

 and one of their associates 'Raisul' was also arrested. 

"We've interrogated them. They admitted that they are not citizens of Bangladesh," the police officer said. 

He said it was confirmed that they belonged to Rohingya community. According to their passports, they are Mujibul Haque, Milon Mia, Ahmad Ali, Abbas Ali, Alamgir Hossain and 'Anwar'. 
The police officer said preparations to file a case against them were underway. 

Rohingya people are minority Muslims from the Arakan state of neighbouring Myanmar, who have been fleeing to Bangladesh to escape persecution from the military junta since 1978. 

Tens of thousands of Rohingya people have camped in Cox's Bazar and Bandarban, and many of them have spread across the country. Several illegal camps have been set up in the districts, mostly in Cox's Bazar, and international agencies such as UNHCR and Medicine Sans Frontiers provide them with rationing and other facilities despite the government's reservation. 

A process to repatriate them has been stalled because of weak diplomatic effort by Bangladesh amid Myanmar's reluctance to take them back. 

Allegations have it that many of them have even enrolled as Bangladeshi voters.