The continuing military operations in western Myanmar have triggered a major humanitarian crisis. More than 65,000 refugees have fled an army and paramilitary police crackdown aimed specifically at Rohingya people and villages. Myanmar's de facto leader and foreign minister, Aung San Suu Kyi, sent a special envoy to Bangladesh last week to discuss the border crisis. But a parallel danger has emerged in the form of a Bengali terrorist group seeking to cause more problems.
It is clear now that the Myanmar military's "clearing operations" in Rakhine State neighbouring Bangladesh are sheer retaliation against the innocent. The cause of the violence against the Rohingya was a coordinated attack last Oct 9 on several Myanmar police posts. An estimated 200 armed men attacked the posts in Maungdaw district of Rakhine. This western Myanmar region area has a number of Rohingya villages nad the Myanmar armed forces and paramilitary police immediately set about those villages on Oct 10 and have not ceased since.
The armed October attack on the police posts were led by a Bangladesh-based terrorist group. It is called Aqa Mul Mujahidin or Faith Movement of Arakan -- "Arakan" being the term used recently to describe what is now called Rakhine state. Looking at the larger militant picture in Bangladesh, Aqa Mul Mujahidin is considered a small jihadist group, posing no threat to the central powers either in in Bangladesh or Myanmar. (Courtesy of bangkokpost.com)
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