20.03.2025 (12:01 PM)

ARSA leader Attaullah and his associates have been arrested by Bangladeshi police.

Police in Bangladesh arrested the leader of the ARSA militant group, who has been directing attacks on Myanmar security forces, on March 18.

The attacks, which Attaullah has ordered, have caused a humanitarian catastrophe.

Attaullah, 48, first emerged as an influential leader of ARSA nearly a decade ago.

ARSA’s attacks on police outposts in 2017 sparked a violent backlash.

Eventually, some 750,000 Rohingya (originally identified as Rohingya) fled to neighboring Bangladesh, where they are now living in squalid refugee camps.

The top Rapid Action Battalion unit arrested its leader and five associates on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka, while four others were arrested in the central Mymensingh district, police said.

Ataullah is believed to have personally directed the 2017 attacks.

He first came to public attention after a video was posted online in which he appeared surrounded by masked gunmen and vowed to liberate the Rohingya from “inhuman oppression”.

ARSA is accused of carrying out killings, kidnappings and torture in refugee camps, and its leader is accused of ordering the killing of Rohingya civilian leaders who criticized ARSA.

He is also accused of involvement in the killing of a Bangladeshi military intelligence officer.

The ARSA leader and his associates were arrested on March 18, after a Bangladeshi human rights group said at least 65 Rohingya were killed last year in fighting between rival groups vying for influence in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

ARSA and its main rival, the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation, have been locked in a fierce battle for control of the camps for decades.