SECURITY officials in Bangladesh arrested the leader of a Rohingya insurgent group on charges of illegal entry, sabotage and terrorist activities in the South Asian nation.

Police said that a team of the Rapid Action Battalion arrested Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi, known as the commander in chief of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) in a raid on Tuesday in Narayanganj district near the capital, Dhaka.

Mr Jununi, a Pakistani-born Rohingya who grew up in Mecca, leads a group that has conducted attacks on officials in Myanmar as part of what it describes as “a defensive war with the brutal Burmese military regime” on behalf of the Rohingya, who face discrimination and violence in Myanmar.

Bangladeshi intelligence says ARSA members have been involved in targeted killings, kidnappings, illicit drugs, smuggling and other serious crimes in the Rohingya refugee camps.

Infighting and retaliatory attacks over control of the camps led to deaths of hundreds of Rohingya.

Bangladesh’s Daily Star reported that 10 other group members, including four children and women, were also arrested in separate raids in Narayanganj and Mymensingh districts.

Shahinur Alam, a senior police official at Siddhirganj in Narayanganj, told reporters that the officials also seized cash, a knife, a sharp steel chain and four wristwatches during the raid.