“I May Be Killed Any Moment”
35
with five witnesses and survivors of the attack, reviewed photographs of the crime scene and media
reports, and found that the militants killed the six men using swords, guns, and knives.131
A mullah who was present at the madrasa during the killings told Fortify Rights:
The attack took place on October 22, 2021, a month after Mohib Ullah was murdered. When
they came to attack us, I was also inside the room in the madrasa. We did not realize anything
at first because all were in a deep sleep, and it was 4 a.m. when they came to attack the madrasa.
… Those who entered the madrasa had knives, sticks, and guns. They entered the madrasa,
fired their weapons, and killed the students with gunshots … Whoever got hit by a bullet, fell
and died. Three teachers and three students were killed.132
A relative of a man killed in the attack said: “I saw the men with knives, swords, sticks, and pistols
in their hands. … [The armed attackers] finished the killing mission, and I could see six dead bodies
slaughtered on the ground. … I saw [my relative’s] dead body. … I saw blood everywhere.”133
In the aftermath of the attack, another Rohingya refugee who saw some of the bodies of those killed
told Fortify Rights, “We saw the mullahs who were killed inside the madrasa when we went into the
madrasa with the police.”134 The same man told Fortify Rights in another interview, “I saw two men
[who had been] killed. … They were hacked with swords.”135
According to a member of the madrasa and an internal Bangladesh intelligence report, the militants
targeted religious leaders whom they believed were opposed to ARSA’s rule in the refugee camps
and cooperating with Bangladesh authorities.136 A head mullah told Fortify Rights, “The teachers
who worked for my religious school were highly educated people, and they didn’t want to follow the
rules and regulations of ARSA.”137
The mullah told Fortify Rights that the religious leaders were cooperating with Bangladesh
authorities, saying:
The authorities, like the CiC [Camp-in-Charge] or the police, would hold meetings with the
people and mullahs in the madrasa. Besides, the DB [Detective Branch], DGFI [Directorate
General of Forces Intelligence], and other higher-level officers had meetings in the madrasa.
... After Mohib Ullah’s murder in the camp, the APBn police officer [name withheld] formed a
camp committee comprising people from all categories, like teachers, mullahs, village elders,
and volunteers.138
He further explained how the Bangladesh security forces regularly used the madrasa compound
during security sweeps in the camp:
The security forces go to the camp to chase the gang members and bad people and arrest them.
They arrest the bad people and bring them to the madrasa. We can’t refuse [the security forces]
to sit in the madrasa compound since this is their country and laws. They arrest the accused
from the camp, bring them there, and then take them away with their vehicle. So, this place
becomes a [temporary] center for [Bangladesh security forces]. … [ARSA] assumed that the
madrasa people were bringing and inviting the police and the authorities here.139
131 Fortify Rights interviews with B.G. and B.H., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 1, 2021; Fortify Rights
interview with B.F., November 2 and 17, 2021; Fortify Rights interview with B.I., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh,
November 18, 2021; Fortify Rights interview A.E. Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, 18, 2021 and October 6, 2022.
132 Fortify Rights interview with A.E., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, October 6, 2022.
133 Fortify Rights interview with B.H., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 1, 2021.
134 Fortify Rights interview with B.F., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 17, 2021.
135 Fortify Rights interview with B.F., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 2, 2021.
136 See, for example, Fortify Rights interview with A.E., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, October 6, 2022.
137 Ibid.
138 Ibid.
139 Ibid.