Rohingyas to celebrate first Eid in Bangladesh

Dhaka [Bangladesh], June 15 (ANI): An estimated two-thirds of the 1.2 million Rohingya refugees are all set to celebrate their first Eid in Bangladesh.

However, the 700,000 Rohingyas stuck in the world's biggest refugee camp in Bangladesh's Cox Bazar, have no means to celebrate the Muslim festival.

Most of them are more concerned with day-to-day survival as they have been suffering due to heavy rains over the last few days.

Some organisations are handing out new clothes and food to a number of Rohingyas for Eid, but the mood for celebration is very low in the camps, as per some Rohingya leaders.

The Refugee Rehabilitation and Relief Commission office claimed that there are enough mosques at the camps for people to offer Eid prayers, but authorities have still not planned any form of Eid prayer congregation, Dhaka Tribune reported.

Security has also been beefed up at all the camps ahead of the festival.

Rohingyas are a Muslim minority ethnic group in Myanmar and are considered to be illegal immigrants.

More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees are languishing in Bangladeshi refugee camps, after fleeing a brutal Myanmar army campaign launched in August last year.

The United Nations had said the scorched-earth operation, which had left hundreds of villages burned to ash in Myanmar's Rakhine state, amounted to 'ethnic cleansing'. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI