In this photo taken on Sept. 7 armed Myanmar police patrol fields near Maungdaw in the northern Rakhine State in Myanmar. Witnesses say entire villages in Rakhine State have been burned since Rohingya militants launched a series of coordinated attacks on August 25, prompting a military-led crackdown. (Photo by AFP)
Extremist groups in Malaysia and Bangladesh have recruited fighters to join the Rohingya insurgency in Myanmar's Rakhine State, security officials said Sept. 18, amid growing outrage at violence against the Muslim minority.
Some Malaysians were already "in Myanmar to fight against the oppression of the Rohingya there," Malaysia's police chief said.
"Intelligence also detected that a group in Malaysia is currently attempting to sneak into Myanmar to join the fight. Counterterrorism is determining how many of them are abroad and those who are still here," Police Inspector-General Mohamad Furzi Harun told BenarNews, a Radio Free Asia-affiliated online news service.
"These jihadists are being recruited by those who are already in Rakhine and Malaysia. It is believed that those who are already there entered the country via Bangladesh and Thailand," he said.
In Bangladesh, the national police's counterterrorism force is looking at how to prevent cross-border activity by members of the Rohingya rebel group known as the Arakan Rakhine Salvation Army (ARSA), a police official said on condition of anonymity.
"Infiltrating ARSA members have been trying to recruit new members from the Rohingya who have been staying here," the official said, referring to the 400,000 refugees in the southeast of the country.
"We have information that they already recruited 50 members," he said.
