Slain Rohingya leader’s family leaves Bangladesh for Canada

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Fearing for their lives, the family of slain Rohingya leader and rights activist, Mohibullah, left Bangladesh for Canada.

“Eleven members of the family, including the wife, children, and a daughter-in-law, left for Canada on a Turkish Airlines flight early Friday from Dhaka,” Ansar Ali, a Rohingya leader and activist, confirmed to Anadolu Agency.

Ali was present at the family's unofficial farewell at the refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, a southern district of Bangladesh.

The UN refugee agency and the Bangladeshi government facilitated the resettlement, a senior staff of an international humanitarian organization involved in Rohingya support in Cox’s Bazar told Anadolu Agency requesting not to be named.

Mohibullah, 48, was gunned down on Sept. 29 last year outside his office in the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar.

He was a popular figure among the over 1.1 million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, most of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in August 2017.

Mohibullah was documenting the Myanmar military's killings of the Rohingya people and encouraging refugees in the camps to return to their home country Myanmar, said Ali.

Mohibullah's family continued to seek refuge in a third country amid security threats in Cox's Bazar, Rashidullah, Mohibullah's nephew told reporters earlier.

Police have arrested at least 15 Rohingya refugees in connection with the murder, said Md. Shakin Ahamed, additional superintendent of police in Cox’s Bazar, noting that their investigation is in its final stage.