The Rohingya Liberation Party (RLP) was a

Rohingya The Rohingya people (; ; ) are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who predominantly follow Islam from Rakhine State, Myanmar. Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 1.4 million Ro ...

political organization in

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

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

(formerly Arakan, Burma). It had an armed wing called the Rohingya Liberation Army, which was led by a former

mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

leader named Zaffar Kawal.

History

On 15 July 1972, mujahideen leader Zaffar Kawal founded the Rohingya Liberation Party after mobilising various mujahideen factions under his command. Zaffar appointed himself Chairman of the party, Abdul Latif as Vice Chairman and Minister of Military Affairs, and Muhammad Jafar Habib as the Secretary General, a graduate from the University of Yangon. Their strength increased from 200 fighters in the beginning to up to 2,500 by 1974. The RLP was largely based in the jungles of Buthidaung. After a massive military operation by the

Tatmadaw The Tatmadaw, also known as the Sit-Tat, is the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include ...

(Myanmar Armed Forces) in July 1974, Zaffar and most of his men fled across the border into

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

References

Defunct political parties in Myanmar Ethnic armed organisations in Myanmar Islam in Myanmar Islamist groups Rakhine State Rohingya conflict Separatism in Myanmar {{Myanmar-org-stub Political parties of minorities in Myanmar

History

See also

References