UN experts urge probe of Rohingya killings in Bangladesh

UN human rights experts have raised new concerns about the treatment of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh following a deadly backlash over the killing of a ruling party official.

The experts called for an "impartial" investigation into the deaths of at least six Rohingya men in gunfights with police after they were named as suspects in the killing of Omar Faruk, a youth wing official of the ruling Awami League.

Following the murder, local people vandalised refugee shops and staged protests in one of multiple camps now home to a total of more than 900,000 Muslim Rohingya who have fled oppression in neighbouring Myanmar.

In a statement released late Monday in Geneva, the six specially appointed UN experts on rights issues backed Bangladesh's probe into the murder of Faruk.

But they added, "it is equally necessary to ensure that the presumption of innocence is upheld and that reactionary, summary and ad hoc justice is not doled out solely to placate the legitimate concerns of the host community."