The Rohingya Patriotic Front (RPF) was a

political organisation A political organization is any organization that involves itself in the political process, including political parties, non-governmental organizations, and special interest advocacy groups. Political organizations are those engaged in politica ...

headquartered in Cox's Bazar,

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. The RPF had a small and poorly armed insurgent army of 70 fighters, who were active along the Bangladesh–Burma border and in northern Arakan, Burma (present-day

Rakhine State Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region to the east, the Bay of Ben ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

). The goal of the RPF was to create an

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...

Muslim zone for the

Rohingya people The Rohingya people () are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an ...

. Muhammad Jafar Habib, a graduate of

Rangoon University '') , mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom. , established = , type = Public , rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun , undergrad = 4194 , postgrad = 5748 , city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon , state = Yangon Regio ...

and a native of the town of

Buthidaung Buthidaung (, ) is a town in Rakhine State, in the westernmost part of Myanmar (Burma). It is the administrative seat of the Buthidaung Township. Buthidaung lies on the west bank of the Mayu river, and experienced severe flooding in June 2010 and ...

, was the leader of the RPF. He was formerly the secretary of the Rohingya Liberation Party (RLP).

History

On 26 April 1964, the Rohingya Independence Front (RIF) was established with the goal of creating an

Muslim zone for the

. The name of the group was changed to the Rohingya Independence Army (RIA) in 1969 and then to the Rohingya Patriotic Front (RPF) on 12 September 1973. In June 1974, the RPF was reorganised with Muhammad Jafar Habib as self-appointed president, Nurul Islam, a Rangoon-educated lawyer, as vice president, and Muhammad Yunus, a medical doctor, as secretary general. On 6 February 1978, the socialist military junta of General Ne Win began Operation ''Nagamin'' (

Operation Dragon King Operation Dragon King ( my, နဂါးမင်း စစ်ဆင်ရေး), officially known as Operation Nagamin in English, was a military operation carried in 1978 out by the Tatmadaw and immigration officials in northern Arakan, Bu ...

) in northern Arakan (Rakhine State), one of the objectives of which was to arrest members of the RPF. The operation created disagreements between the RPF, causing the organisation to split into several factions, many of which later merged to become the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) in 1982. In 1986, the RPF merged with a faction of the RSO led by the former vice president of the RPF, Nurul Islam, and became the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front (ARIF).

References

Islam in Myanmar Rakhine State Rebel groups in Myanmar

Insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irr ...

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