Bangladesh - Bangladeshi elite police on Monday shot dead seven suspected Rohingya ‘gangsters’ involved in drug and people smuggling, a spokesman for the force said.

Tensions are rising in south-east Bangladesh two and a half years after hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fled a military offensive in Myanmar.

The Rapid Action Battalion said it was involved in a three-hour shootout with members of a bandit group led by notorious Rohingya gang leader known as Zokir. “So far we have recovered seven bodies with bullet wounds,” RAB spokesman Abdullah Sheikh Sadi said. He added that it was unclear if Zokir was among the dead.