CNI News

2 May 2025

Myanmar rejects and condemns the call for a separate autonomous region for the Bengali people in Rakhine State by the Jamaat-e-Islami, an opposition party in Bangladesh, the SAC told CNI News.

On April 27, 2025, at the Hotel Westin in Dhaka, Bangladesh, representatives of the Communist Party of China (CCP) and a delegation led by Dr. Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher, a member of the Central Committee of the Jamaat-e-Islami Party, discussed China's support for the establishment of a separate autonomous region for the Bengalis in Rakhine State.

“The SAC would like to express its deep condemnation and protest against the statements made by the Jamaat-e-Islami Party during the meeting with the Chinese Communist Party for political gain, as they violate Myanmar’s sovereignty,” said the SAC.

While seeing delegates of the Communist Party of China and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Party

The SAC told CNI News that the Bangladeshi and Myanmar deputy foreign ministers met in Kunming, China, to discuss the repatriation and support program for Bengali refugees (Rohingya Muslims) in Bangladesh, but the talks were halted when armed conflict broke out.

“Myanmar has a basic policy of verification and repatriating Rohingya refugees, and that sufficient facilities have been built with Chinese assistance for the refugees who will return to Myanmar which Myanmar has made it clear to international diplomats ” the SAC said.

Currently, Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to repatriate 180,000 (one hundred and eighty thousand) Rohingya refugees. Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist-based political party in Bangladesh, has called on China to push for the establishment of a separate independent country for the Rakhine people and the creation of a separate independent state for the Bengali people in Rakhine State.

The region where Muslims live within Rakhine State

The political party was prosecuted during the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and has been banned from contesting elections since 2014. After the Sheikh Hasina government was overthrown in August 2024, an interim government led by pro-American Muhammad Yunus took office, which dropped the charges against Jamaat-e-Islami and allowed it to form a party again.

The Bengalis are trying to unite the Buthidaung, Maungdaw, and Rathedaung townships in Rakhine State, Myanmar, and create an independent territory. Currently, battles are taking place in Rakhine State between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar Army, and between armed groups fighting for the Rohingya people (ARSA, RSO, ARA) and the AA.