Police in Bangladesh have arrested the leader of a Rohingya insurgent group who was allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against Myanmar security forces, authorities said on Tuesday.

Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi, the 48-year-old chief of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), was arrested near the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka as he was suspected of murder and carried out acts of sabotage, district police chief Praytush Kumar Majumder told the media.

Jununi and five of his associates were arrested by the elite Rapid Action Battalion. Another four of his associates were arrested in the central district of Mymensingh, police said.

The police took them into custody for interrogation and later a district court approved a 10-day remand for the custodial interrogation of the suspects in connection with charges of murder, sabotage, and illegal entry into Bangladesh, police inspector Kaiyum Khan said.

ARSA's history of criminal activity

ARSA was formed as an insurgent group against the stateless Muslim minority's persecution in Myanmar.

Jununi has headed the insurgent group in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State since 2016, according to a report by the International Crisis Group.

In 2017, ARSA was accused of carrying out deadly attackson security posts in Rakhine, which Junini is believed to have orchestrated.

Junini first came to public attention soon after in videos posted online, where he was seen with masked gunmen vowing to liberate the Rohingya from "dehumanized oppression."

The attacks prompted a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar that drove more than 750,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

Jununi is also accused of involvement in the murder of a Bangladeshi military intelligence officer.

There are allegations too that ARSA is involved in cross-border drug smuggling, kidnappings, abductions, as well as  extortion and torture in Bangladeshi refugee camps.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery