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Pope lands in Bangladesh with Rohingya crisis looming large Pope Francis visits the National Martyrs' Memorial of Bangladesh in Savar, outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017. (File photo: AP)
The Associated Press, Bangladesh Thursday, 30 November 2017

Pope Francis arrived Thursday in Bangladesh for the second leg of his six-day trip to Asia with the Rohingya crisis looming large.

Francis arrived in the capital amid tight airport security and much anticipation. Huge banners with pictures of the pope and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina were put up around Dhaka, and St. Mary’s Cathedral was decorated with lights in preparation for his three-day trip to the Muslim majority nation.

Security was a concern after a Christian priest went missing in northern Bangladesh on Tuesday, and his family reported they got calls demanding money. Police said they were looking for the man but would not confirm if it was a kidnapping.

Francis arrived from Myanmar, where he refrained from speaking out about the Rohingya Muslim crisis out of diplomatic deference to his hosts, who consider the Rohingya as having illegally migrated from Bangladesh and don’t recognize them as their own ethnic group.

More than 620,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar and poured into Bangladesh refugee camps over the last few months, and the issue is expected to take center stage in Bangladesh.

The country’s leading English-language newspaper, The Daily Star, said in an editorial it felt “slightly let down” the pope didn’t mention the crisis specifically while in Myanmar.

Francis won’t visit the refugee camps while in Bangladesh but he will host an interfaith peace meeting on Friday in the garden of the Dhaka archbishops’ residence, at which a small group of Rohingya are expected.

The Vatican defended Francis’ silence in Myanmar, saying the pope wanted to “build bridges” with the predominantly Buddhist nation.

But human rights groups and Rohingya themselves have expressed disappointment that Francis, an advocate for refugees and the world’s most marginal, refrained from condemning what the U.N. has said is a textbook case of ethnic cleansing.

Rohingya have since poured into neighboring Bangladesh, where they have described indiscriminate attacks by Myanmar security forces and Buddhist mobs, including killings, rapes and the torching of entire villages.

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