14 October 2015•Update: 15 October 2015
By Mainul Islam Khan
DHAKA, Bangladesh
Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies have detained a suspected leader of one of three armed groups banned from neighboring Myanmar's pre-election peace drive in southeastern Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi news website BDnews24.com reported local police officer Wahidullah Sarkar as saying Wednesday that a man who is thought to be Rannin Soe from the separatist Arakan Army group was detained at a local mosque in the Rangamati Hill district.
The Myanmar government has excluded the Arakan Army from peace talks that President Thein Sein hopes will lead to a nationwide cease-fire agreement before the general election.
The man suspected of being Soe is reported to be currently in the custody of the Rajasthali police.
Police say they had been looking for the rebel leader since an August clash between Arakan Army guerrillas and Bangladeshi security forces near the country's shared border, in which a Bangladeshi border guard was killed.
Shortly after, the ethnic Arakanese rebels were reported to have tried to reach out to the Bangladesh government to prevent further fighting.
Soe’s associate, On U Raphine -- who was arrested in the wake of the August attack and has confessed to being a member of the rebel group -- reportedly provided police with information about the leader in the run-up to Wednesday's arrest.
The Arakan Army is one of a patchwork of insurgencies that have lingered in Myanmar since independence in 1948.
It is one of three groups -- the Arakan Army, the Kokang or Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta-ang or Palaung National Liberation Army -- unilaterally excluded from the ongoing peace talks as they were involved in heavy fighting with the Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) in the country's north earlier this year.
According to its "official" website, the Arakan Army was founded Apr. 10, 2009 to protect the people of Arakan -- on Myanmar's western coast -- while establishing peace, justice, freedom and development in the region.
* Anadolu Agency correspondent Joshua Carroll contributed to this story from Myanmar
