Arrested Samiuddin directly involved in Mohibullah murder: Rab

Noor Kamal alias Samiuddin, who was arrested on Sunday night, was directly involved in the murder of Rohingya leader Master Mohibullah, said the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab).

"Samiuddin, 48, is the head of a group of 20 Arsa members based in the Rohingya camp. More than 15 members of the killer group took part in the killing of Rohingya leader Mohammad Mohibullah under the orders of Ataullah Jununi, the head of Arsa," said Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of the Legal and Media Wing of RAB, at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday.

"Two days before the murder, a secret meeting was held in a nearby camp. In that meeting Samiuddin distributed the responsibilities to the members of the team that took part in the assassination mission," Khandaker Al Moin added.

Samiuddin was the first to shoot Muhibullah and escaped after firing blanks at the end of the assassination mission, said the Rab official.

Arsa chief Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi has regular contact with Samiuddin, Khandaker Al Moin informed the press conference.

He also said there are more than 15 cases against him with the Ukhiya and Naikhongchhari police stations on various charges including murder, kidnapping and possessing weapons.

According to Rab, he was also involved in the killing of a senior officer of the intelligence agency by carrying out an armed attack during a joint operation against drugs and terrorism at the Ghumdhum border of Naikhongchhari upazila in Bandarban in mid-November 2022. He is also involved in the murders of Head Majhis Shafiq, Jasim, Salim, Noor Bashar, Salam, Kalabda, Salim, Rahimullah and Khaled and the much talked about six murders in the Rohingya camp.

Samiuddin was arrested during a raid conducted in the Kutupalong area of Ukhiya Upazila of Cox's Bazar on Sunday night.

"A Rab team raided a secret shelter in the Kutupalong refugee camp acting on a tip-off that Samiuddin was staying there. When the suspected hideout was surrounded, four to five people who were present there sensed the presence of Rab members and tried to flee. Others escaped but Samiuddin was chased and arrested," RAB-15 Cox's Bazar Battalion Assistant Director (Legal and Media) Additional Superintendent of Police Md Abu Salam Chowdhury told TBS.

At that time, some local and foreign firearms and bullets were recovered from the spot.

On the night of 29 September in 2021, Master Mohibullah, the president of Arakan Rohingya Society for Human Rights, was shot dead by miscreants at Kutupalong refugee camp. On 13 June in 2022, the Ukhiya police filed a charge sheet in the court against 29 people including Arsa chief Ataullah Jununi and seven others as unidentified.