DHAKA, Bangladesh

A total of 994 members of Bangladesh's Rohingya refugee community have been imprisoned since 2017, the country's home minister told lawmakers Wednesday.

Asaduzzaman Khan said in the South Asian country's Parliament that individuals and institutions "disturbing public security" in Rohingya camps in southeastern Cox's Bazar district "are being brought under intelligence surveillance."

Members of the community who have been detained since being forced out of neighboring Myanmar have faced various charges, including possession of arms and murder.

About 1.2 million Rohingya are living in the South Asian country. The majority of Rohingya fled a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine, Myanmar in 2017. Most of them are housed in overcrowded camps in Cox's Bazar, but since late 2020 about 35,000 have been relocated to the island of Bhasan Char.

Refugee camps in Cox's Bazar are witnessing growing number of clashes and killings due to group rivalries among Rohingya.

A police official from Cox's Bazar told Anadolu that a top leader of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) group was killed Wednesday in a shootout between police and a criminal gang at a Rohingya camp in the Ukhiya area.

The deceased ARSA leader, Abdul Monaf, 26, had faced multiple charges, including four murders.

This Monday, three Rohingya were shot dead and three more injured in the same refugee camps.

The ARSA and Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) insurgent groups are active in Myanmar's western Rakhine State, but in Cox's Bazar, they have locked horns to establish supremacy in the refugee camps.