At least 50 people were injured in a clash today between Muslim refugees from Burma and police at a refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said.
The clash erupted after a group of the Rohingya refugees attacked a police post at Kutupalong Refugee Camp, trying to free one of their community leaders who had been detained for sheltering illegal people. Ten policemen were among those injured.
Kutupalong houses some 8,500 Rohingyas, who crossed into Bangladesh from Burma's western Arakan state in 1992 claiming they were being persecuted by the Yangon military regime.
Police fired rubber bullets to subdue hundreds of stone-throwing and stick-wielding refugees during the two-hour long clash, officials said.
Police said they had earlier received complaints that some refugees at the camp had been sheltering people who had crossed into Bangladesh over the past few weeks.
At least 20,000 Rohingya refugees are in Bangladesh awaiting repatriation. They are the remnants of more than 250,000 people who had crossed into Bangladesh in 1992.
Police said another 15,000 Rohingyas had recently entered Bangladesh from Burma and set up small camps near the border.