2 Arsa men held in Cox's Bazar

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) detained two commanders of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) and recovered a huge amount of local and foreign arms, including grenades and rocket cells during a raid on the hideout in the Ukhiya Hills of Cox's Bazar.

The detainees are Arsa commander Master Salimullah, 38, and his associate Md Riaz, 27. Both of them are Rohingya.

A special team of bomb disposal of Bangladesh Army went to the spot and destroyed the recovered explosives, grenades, IEDs and rocket cells due to public safety reasons.

Arafat Islam, commander of RAB's law and media wing, gave this information in a brief press briefing at Lal Pahar in Ukhiya, the site of the incident .

Arafat Islam said that a team of RAB raided Arsa's hideout in the hills of Ukhiya based on secret information at Lal Pahar, next to Ukhiya Rohingya Camp-20 Extension, on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, three rifles, five grenades, ten locally made hand grenades, one foreign-made revolver- Nine mm, One LG, three cartridges and 13 cocktails were recovered. Arsa commander Master Salimullah and his associate Md Riaz were arrested while escaping, he added.

The RAB commander said that for several days, some Rohingyas have been shot and killed in the Rohingya camp. Because of this, RAB increased intelligence activities in the camp. Following this, based on specific information, the hideout of Myanmar's terrorist organization Arsa was identified.

Later the campaign started and the entire area was surrounded. At one stage, the terrorists started firing after sensing the presence of RAB. Then RAB also fired back. At one point, the firearms were recovered from the hideout, he added.