A Bangladesh government panel, set up to investigate the fire which left thousands of Rohingya migrants homeless, has revealed that the tragic incident was in fact a "planned and purposeful act of sabotage" by criminal groups.
According to Additional District Magistrate Abu Sufian, who led the seven-member probe panel, criminals torched the shelters to establish supremacy in the camps. He, however, did not name any particular group or individuals responsible for the act.
"We recommended further investigation by the law-enforcing agency to identify the groups behind the incident," Sufian added.
The panel spoke to as many as 75 people during the course of preparing the report, including Rohingya people, staffers of camp administration, NGOs, and a local representative, Sufian said.
A fire broke out at Camp 11 at the Cox's Bazar refugee camp, where about a million Rohingya refugees were living after a brutal military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
Although no casualties were reported, schools, medical facilities, mosques, and service points at the camp were engulfed in flames.
It's worth noting that the overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh often report arson incidents.
According to a Bangladesh Defence Ministry report released in February, a total of 222 fire incidents occurred in the Rohingya camps, including 60 cases of arson between January 2021 and December 2022.
The probe panel, meanwhile, has also recommended the formation of a fire service unit in the Rohingya camps to avoid such incidents in the future.