The situation has already been volatile for Hindus in Bangladesh since the takeover of the so-called revolution led by students and Jamat-e-Islami, an Islamist extremist outfit whose offshots in India have been banned under UAPA. The arrest, looting, killing and persecution of Hindus have become a daily routine in Bangladesh, and we all are getting reports and news all over the internet. In the latest development in India’s other neighbouring country, Myanmar, the reports have been coming out that jihadi groups have been carrying out atrocities against the Buddhist population along the border with Bangladesh. According to claims going viral on social media and some media reports, the rebel Arakan Army is now in control of some territories of Bangladesh.
The towns that are more impacted and vulnerable to this violence are Maungdaw and Buthidaung. Myanmar shares a 270 km long border with Bangladesh. The villages and towns on the long border are Muslim-dominated areas. According to the census of 1983, Muslims constitute approximately 80–96% of the population on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border and the coastal areas. Due to this population parity, the Buddhist population has been repeatedly facing violence and atrocities.
Military Junta’s recent Defeat
Myanmar is facing the worst civil war situation in Asia, where the military junta, the one in power, is facing a formidable challenge from the separatist Arakan Army (AA). The AA has taken control over nearly all of Rakhine state in Myanmar, pushing back against junta-led forces. It is believed to be a ferocious battle – perhaps the bloodiest of the civil war which has consumed Myanmar since the military seized power in a coup in 2021.
“The Arakan Army has (started) taking control over the Bangladesh-Myanmar border around one year back … Now, the Arakan Army has taken over the control of its remaining parts,” said Maj. Syed Ishtiaq Morshed, commander of the Border Guard Bangladesh in Teknaf subdistrict, which shares a border with Myanmar opposite the town of Maungdaw.
Myanmar-Bangladesh Border
The Myanmar territories which border Bangladesh have been known for their Jihadist and radical activities. The constant atrocities on the Buddhist population in the form of killings, rapes, kidnappings and other kinds of torture have been reported. The area is also notorious for operating a number of militant and jihadist groups out of Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.
“There are nearly 11 militant groups operating out of Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, which include the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), which is also associated with the Al-Qaeda and Jamaat-e-Islami, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), and Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA). Hundreds of people have died due to their atrocities”, said a source from Arakan.
According to a report by the Global Arakan Network (GAN), Islamists have used the Muslim population in Maungdaw as human shields and urged them to fight the non-Muslim population (Buddhists and Hindus).
According to a report, the porous border and religious connection with Bangladesh have provided a breeding ground for the above-mentioned jihadist groups. These groups leverage the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh to recruit young Muslim youth. Later, they train them to fight against other religions and governments. The current unstable political situation, along with increased radicalisation, provided a golden chance to target the local population in the border area of Rakhine. The Muslim majority in the region has provided a bonus point along with Bangladesh’s political environment, and these Jihadist groups leverage the situation to persecute the Buddhist population in order to take control of the region. Bangladesh has tolerated and ignored this recruitment of young people from the camp, the Arakan Army alleged.
Tactical Alliance between Junta and Jihadis
The communal tension is a long problem in the border region and has seen clashes between the Rohingya Muslim and Buddhist populations. The tension is not new. The Arakan Army and the Military Junta both had problems with the Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar, knowing their communal nature. The clashes between the Arakan Army and the Rohingya groups and atrocities between one another are part of the Rakhine society. The military junta is known for the Rohingya displacement and migration from Myanmar to Bangladesh. However, in recent months of this year, when the fighting between the Arakan Army and the Junta intensified in Rakhine State, the Junta forces allied with Rohingya militant groups for their tactical gain.
According to a local media report, satellite imagery analysis and witness accounts, in the largely Muslim townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw, where an estimated 240,000 Rohingya resided, conflict had escalated by April. Junta forces allied with Rohingya armed groups carried out arson attacks on ethnic Rakhine villages on the outskirts of Buthidaung town and Rakhine areas within the town in the same month. In response, the Arakan Army also attacked Rohingya villages and east of Buthidaung town. The Rohingya militants and jihadist groups used the common population as a human shield in order to save themselves from intensified attacks by Arakan Army. When the Hasina government fell, and the Islamists came into power in Bangladesh in the month of August, the environment became conducive for these jihadist groups to conduct atrocities against the Buddhist population near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.
The current situation in Myanmar and Bangladesh is highly unstable. Instability is considered the best time for the propagation of jihadist and radical ideas. The current situation in both India’s neighbours in the east is conducive for jihadists to spread their influence and persecute minorities such as Hindus and Buddhists in the region. The world, especially the Western media and Human Rights Watch, actively portrayed the wrong narrative of Rohingya Migration and asked International Institutions to get involved.
However, they are silent on the recent persecution of Hindus as a minority community in Bangladesh and Buddhists as a Majority community in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. This two-face response to two separate atrocities is nothing but the exposed the biased Western narrative to the world. Despite the Europeans suffering from Islamic radicalization, the strategic silence on the atrocities on Buddhists and Hindus will come to affect them in the long run as well.
