Bangladesh Police has arrested a Turkish Member of Parliament and 15 other Turkish citizens. The name of the member of the national assembly of Turkey is Sukio Gazl. The concerned police officer of Cox’s Bazar Selim Jahangir said journalists that the Turkish MP was distributing charity meat of Eid ul Adha among the Rohingya Muslims. This was a follow up visit by the Turkish MP after the visit of Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and wife of Prime Minister Emily Erdogan in a similar charity activity inside Myanmar in last August. Rohingya Muslim community, who speak the same language of Bangladesh, is facing an ongoing ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar Junta and Buddhist Rakhain community in Myanmar.

This unprecedented arrest of a foreign law maker came at a time when Bangladesh government has tightened any charity activities among the local resident Rohingya community as well as denied entrance of any further Rohingya asylum seeker whatsoever during this massacre. This is clearly a shift of foreign policy from Bangladeshi side after the taking over of the office by Bangladesh Awami League. Previous Bangladesh governments had given shelter and provided rehab facilities to this ethnic minority group. Many of them reside in the part of Bangladesh which is near to Myanmar border. The police officer told newspapers that they set “check posts” in local resident Rohingya ghettos so that they may not move to any part of Bangladesh particularly the capital.

The officer in charge from where the MP Sukio Gazl was arrested, Oppela Raju Naha said a newspaper that, in Saturday morning Mr. Gazl along with an international volunteer delegation was distributing the charity meats among the Rohingya community. Police arrested 2 other nationals from UK and Netherlands and 15 Turkish charity workers. While police was busy arresting the international charity volunteers who were helping Rohingya refugees, some elite forces of Police and other para-military forces intensified their patrol along Myanmar border so that no more Rohingya could flee to Bangladesh facing the on going massacre.
The government sources from Myanmar acknowledged that 56 Rohingya were killed in only Thursday. Bangladeshi news agency Barta24.net has confirmed, in Sunday Bangladesh border guards has returned more than 60 Rohingya asylum seekers who were fleeing from the recent violence started in October. In May there had been another episode of massacre. According to international human rights groups which killed, hundreds of Rohingya Muslims and displaced more than 90,000 Rohingya.

Source: BBC, Prothom Alo, Barta24