Bleeding Rakhine: Taking back to a Rohingya family in Rakhine is a hoax
On the night of April 14, 2018, a Rohingya named Ekhtar Alam returned to Rakhine with five family members. The Myanmar government accepted them and gave them a foreign (Bengali) Identity Card. Myanmar media has made a lot of news on these issues. The news has been published by various international media including Bangladesh.
Ekhtar Alam was known as a reliable Hookkata or the Chairman of Myanmar Army and Border Guard Police of Tamru Right in Maungdu of Rakhine. Ekhtar Alam along with his wife Sajeda Begum (42), daughter Sahena Begum (13), son Tarek Aziz (7) and maid, Shaokat Ara (23) returned to Rakhine. In a statement of the Myanmar government said that the family of Ekhtar Alam was staying at the Tamru zero line. The news was spread to create a positive image for the Myanmar government. Myanmar's state news media has published the news for several days on Ekhtar Alam’s return.
The Bangladesh government knew nothing about it. The Daily Prothoma Alo Newspaper reports that (the family that were taken back were living in no-mans-land, according to the newspaper that the home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said was at an event the following day. They didn't come to the camp in Bangladesh. He said it was ridiculous to take back only one family out of six thousand. We hope that the Myanmar government will take them back soon. )
An educated Rohingya, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, gave terrible information. He said that his two sons are living in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Saiful Quader is working in an organization with Bangladeshi National Identity. Ekhtar Alam never spent a night in the Rohingyas refugee camp, he said. Ekhtar Alam's family came to Bangladesh with Rohingyas, but he stayed with his family at an influential leader home.
He said Ekhtar Alam is a notorious ‘Yaba Godfather’ at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. And that's why, every week, Ekhtar Alam would cross the border into Bangladesh. He has a huge Yaba network in Naikhangchhari Upazila of Bandarpur and Ukhia and Teknar in Cox's Bazar. He has followers in different unions of the three districts.
Another Rohingya leader prefers to be anonymity, said that Abu Taher, the elder brother of Ekhtar Alam, was also an associate of Myanmar troops in the area. The other brother Abdul Qaiyum was the commander of the Rohingya Liberation Organization.
Abdul Qaiyum surrendered to Myanmar army in 1989 with 18 weapons and 22 associates, with the help of Abu Taher, he said. Later Abdul Qaiyum also served as a Hookkata in the area, where the general Rohingyas blamed him for brutal torture. Ekhtar Alam's brothers Abu Taher and Abdul Qaiyum have died. But Aman, another brother of Ekhtar Alam, worked as associate in a Security Agency of Myanmar Army.
Aman Ullah was with the Myanmar Army during the August 25, 2017 terror attacks. But later Aman Ullah moved to Bangladesh, he is currently staying in a Rohingya camp in Ukhia.
In the context of the return of Ekhtar Alam, Rohingya leader Md. Arif said that Ekhtar Alam is known as Myanmar's perpetrator among the Rohingyas. He has done a lot of damage to the Rohingyas as a Hookkata. And even though thousands of Rohingya houses were burned down on the night of August 25, there was no attack on Ekhtar Alam's house. Myanmar Army has not wasted any resources on Ekhtar Alam.
Rohingya leader Dil Mohammad, who took refuge in the Tamru zero line, said that Ekhtar Alam and his family did not come under attack. Ekhtar Alam is the only Myanmar government operative who entered Bangladesh to pass information to the Myanmar government.
Ekhtar Alam used to pass the information on mobile phones with the Myanmar Army and Border Guard Police-BGP all the time. He was not deported, but he entered Bangladesh as a spy. He said that after completing the mission, Ekhtar Alam returned to Rakhine. The life of the Rohingyas was a tragedy for some of the Hookkatas like Ekhtar Alam. The Rohingyas could not resist or protest the injustice sedition for these scoundrels.