Armed Groups, Illegal Voters: Bangladesh Flags Rohingya Camps Ahead Of Polls | Exclusive

Last Updated:January 24, 2026, 14:29 IST

News18 has accessed a confidential notification issued from Md Yunus’s office, which warns of the presence of “armed groups” and a cache of “illegal weapons” inside Rohingya camps

Intelligence inputs suggest that several Rohingyas have illegally enrolled themselves in the voter list and may attempt to cast votes during the election. (AFP)

Just weeks ahead of Bangladesh’s national election, the interim administration headed by Chief Adviser Md Yunus has sounded an internal alarm over what it describes as a serious security and electoral threat emanating from Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, News18 has learnt.

News18 has accessed a confidential notification issued from Md Yunus’s office, which warns of the presence of “armed groups" and a cache of “illegal weapons" inside Rohingya camps, raising fears of possible attempts to sabotage the upcoming polls in Bangladesh “in others parts of the country".

According to the notification, intelligence inputs suggest that several Rohingyas have illegally enrolled themselves in the voter list and may attempt to cast votes during the election. The document explicitly cautions that “individuals or groups with vested interests" could exploit the Rohingya population to disrupt the electoral process in Cox’s Bazar and surrounding constituencies—an area that has long been sensitive due to the massive refugee presence.

The Bangladesh Election Commission has already barred Rohingyas from participating in the electoral process and has directed the government to seal the refugee camps to prevent any movement that could affect polling. However, the notification acknowledges significant logistical hurdles in implementing such an order.

Sealing the camps, it states, would be “untenable" due to the sheer expanse of the Rohingya settlements—among the largest refugee camps in the world—and the non-functionality of CCTV surveillance systems installed there. These gaps, the notification admits, have created blind spots that could be exploited during the election period.

In response, the Yunus administration has laid out a series of emergency measures to be enforced in the final week before polling.

From seven days prior to voting, any Rohingya found outside the designated camp areas is to be immediately detained. A special drive to recover illegal arms and ammunition from within the camps is also set to begin during this period.

The notification further directs that the three-Armed Battalion Police (ABPN) units currently deployed in Cox’s Bazar must not be redeployed elsewhere under any circumstances and should maintain round-the-clock vigilance on camp activities. The three battalions that are tasked with closely monitoring movement, preventing infiltration into nearby population centres and ensuring that the refugee camps do not become staging grounds for unrest.

In a parallel administrative push, the government has been instructed to immediately release funds for repairing damaged boundary walls and restoring non-functional CCTV cameras, indicating official concern that existing physical and technological safeguards are inadequate.

The confidential communication underscores the delicate balance Dhaka is attempting to strike—preventing electoral sabotage while avoiding a humanitarian flashpoint involving nearly a million Rohingya refugees.

For India and the wider region, developments in Cox’s Bazar are being watched closely. Any instability in Bangladesh’s southeast has the potential to spill over borders, particularly at a time when the country is navigating a high-stakes election under intense domestic and international scrutiny.

Bangladesh will go to polls on February 12, 2026. This will be the first election since Sheikh Hasina was ousted on August 5, 2024, in a mass uprising, which, on Friday, she called “conspired regime change" in an audio message. BNP, led by Tarique Rahman, is widely seen as the front-runner, with one recent poll finding approximately 70 per cent of respondents said they would vote for BNP. Jamaat-e-Islami, previously banned from polls, has re-emerged as a significant contender and is contesting in alliance with other parties such as the Citizen Party (NCP) — a newer party with roots in the 2024 youth-led movement.

News world Armed Groups, Illegal Voters: Bangladesh Flags Rohingya Camps Ahead Of Polls | Exclusive

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