BALUKHALI:
Heavily pregnant Rohingya mother Rashida Khatun fled her home in a remote
village in Myanmar's Rakhine state two years ago, bone-tired but desperate to
find a safe place to give birth. After walking for hours with her husband and
three children, Khatun took a treacherous sea journey in bad weather to reach
the southeastern tip of Bangladesh.

The family took
shelter beside a road and erected a makeshift roof with twigs and a polythene sheet.
Several hours later, Khatun gave birth to Ahmad Shah in the pouring rain,
helped by other Rohingya women also sheltering nearby. "I was so tired.
Yet I wanted to give a safe birth to my unborn baby," the 29-year-old
mother said.

"I thought
he wouldn't survive because we were getting drenched by the rain." Shah
turned two on Sunday-the second anniversary of the mass exodus of some 740,000
Rohingya who fled a brutal military crackdown in western Myanmar and took
refuge in vast, squalid camps in Bangladesh. His birth, and his family's
ordeal, are a reminder of the struggles the stateless Muslim minority went
through to flee their homeland.

Some 200,000
Rohingya took part in a rally at the world's largest refugee settlement on
Sunday to mark what the refugees describe as "Genocide Day". Shah's
father Mohammad Selim said his son was a miracle child. "Allah saved my
kid that night. All praise to Him," said Selim, an imam at a mosque at
Balukhali refugee camp. He said his other children still remembered the trauma
of the perilous journey. "I am so happy for Shah that he didn't have to go
through those woes. I will make him an Islamic scholar someday," he added.

Rohingya shot
dead

In another
development, Bangladesh police shot dead a third Rohingya refugee yesterday
after they were accused of the murder of a ruling party official that has
sparked anger among the local population. Nearly a million Rohingya live in
squalid camps in south-east Bangladesh, 740,000 of whom fled a 2017 military
offensive against the Muslim minority in Myanmar.

Police said
Mohammad Hasan, a suspected Rohingya "dacoit" or gang member, was
shot dead after he allegedly opened fire at officers during a raid to arrest
him at Jadimura refugee camp. "He is an accused in the murder of Omar
Faruk," local police chief Prodeep Kumar Das told AFP, referring to a
ruling Awami League party youth wing official who was shot in the head by
suspected Rohingya criminals on Thursday.

On Saturday
police said they had shot dead two Rohingya refugees at the same refugee camp
in the Cox's Bazar district over their alleged roles in the murder. Rights
activists, who asked not to be named, said they believe the two Rohingya men
were killed by police in what appeared to be a staged encounter. The incident
comes days after a second failed attempt to repatriate the refugees which saw
not a single Rohingya turn up to return across the border to conflict-scarred
Rakhine state.

On Sunday, the
Rohingya marked two years since the military crackdown in Myanmar with some
200,000 rallying in a refugee camp where refugee leaders vowed they won't
return home unless their rights and security are ensured. Faruk's murder had
sparked anger among the local population, with hundreds of furious people
blocking a key highway leading to the camp for hours on Thursday, burning tyres
and vandalizing shops visited by refugees.

Rohingya refugees
have said the recent bloodshed has created an atmosphere of fear in the camp,
where security has been tightened. With the latest death, at least 33 Rohingya
have been killed by Bangladeshi police and security forces since the exodus in
August 2017, a police inspector Ruhul Amin said. He said that most were
suspected drug traffickers, accused of smuggling yaba, a popular methamphetamine
pill from across the Myanmar border. UN investigators have said the 2017
violence warrants the prosecution of top Myanmar generals for
"genocide". - Agencies