Bangladesh ordered a leading Rohingya rights group to lock up its headquarters, said a spokesman for the group, which has emerged as a key voice for the Muslim minority stuck in refugee camps, reports AFP.
Officials told community leaders in the camps in Cox's Bazar to keep the office of Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH) padlocked until further notice.
The order comes amid rising impatience in Bangladesh more than two years into hosting around a million Rohingya refugees, who fled the Myanmar military in a mass exodus.
"The CIC (Camp-in-Charge) directed us to padlock the office and not to gather in it without his prior consent," Sayed Ullah, an ARSPH spokesman, told AFP on Friday.
He said all activities by the rights group have now ground to a halt.
The ARSPH has been led by Mohib Ullah, a teacher turned rights activist who has emerged as a key refugee leader and spokesperson in international meetings.
The bamboo and tarpaulin office at Kutupalong, the world's largest refugee settlement, has often housed meetings among Rohingya community leaders.
But Mohib Ullah came under fire in August this year when he led a massive rally of 200,000 refugees to mark the second anniversary of the Myanmar military crackdown.
The rally stoked fears among the Bangladeshi host communities, who have become a minority in the two hilly towns where the Rohingya live in three dozen squalid camps.
0After the rally and a failed repatriation attempt the same month, Bangladesh authorities launched a clampdown on the refugees.
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