Exclusive: 300 Rohingya 'terrorists' planning massive attack on Myanmar Army, say intel sources

Written By Manish Shukla | Updated: Oct 04, 2018, 12:58 PM IST

Exclusive: 300 Rohingya 'terrorists' planning massive attack on Myanmar Army, say intel sources

Amid growing global pressure on Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis, latest intelligence report suggests that some Rohingya extremists are planning a massive attack on Myanmar Army.

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the insurgent group of Rohingya community is believed to be plotting an attack on army soldiers with heavy weaponry. The report said that around 300 ARSA insurgents have already mingled up with Rohingyas residing in Tumbru border area in Bangladesh.

"ARSA has managed to get suicide vests and gathered big numbers of the improvised explosive devices from Jehadi groups present in Bangladesh. ARSA Commander Master Nurumia is the man behind this conspiracy," a highly-placed source in intelligence agency told Zee News. 

On August 25, ARSA had issued a statement expressing grave concerns at sufferings of Rohingyas refugees in Bangladesh and urged all Rohingyas to unite under the common goal of defending the community from 'genocidal army and terrorist government in Myanmar’. The ARSA had also mentioned that its legitimate right to protect Rohingyas from persecution, ensuring their return to 'our ancestral land with safety and dignity' and urged refugees to refrain from indulging and trading in drugs, human trafficking and violence. 

ARSA is recruiting people from refugees camps in Bangladesh. They are believed to be radicalising the Rohingyas and giving them weapons so fight against the Myanmar Army, said a source in Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi.

Earlier in May this year Amnesty International in his report blamed ARSA for killing 99 Hindus in Rakhine state of Myanmar.

‘A Rohingya armed group brandishing guns and swords is responsible for at least one, and potentially a second, massacre of up to 99 Hindu women,men, and children as well as additional unlawful killings and abductions of Hindu villagers in August 2017.Based on dozens of interviews conducted there and across the border in Bangladesh, as well as photographic evidence analyzed by forensic pathologists, the organization revealed how Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) fighters sowed fear among Hindus and other ethnic communities with these brutal attacks,’ Amnesty International revealed.

There are reports about Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan's has been providing all logistics and monetary support to ARSA, which has helped them to mount a counter attack on Myanmar Army. Some report says Lashkar terrorists are also reportedly involved in training ARSA terrorists in their camps.