In the face of intensified fighting between Myanmar security forces and rebels, now military personnel of the neighbouring country along with Border Guard Police (BGP), immigration officials and civilians have also started taking refuge in Bangladesh.
As many as 264 Myanmar nationals, including personnel from the Myanmar army, BGP, immigration, police and other agencies fled to Bangladesh on Tuesday.
The Myanmar troops with arms and ammunition have been disarmed by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel and taken to a safe place, said Shariful Islam, public relations officer (PRO) at BGB headquarters.
“So far 264 members of the Myanmar BGP, Myanmar Army, immigration personnel, police and other agencies have entered Bangladesh due to the ongoing conflict inside Myanmar,” said the BGB spokesperson.
With the fresh arrival, the number of Myanmar nationals, which included mostly the BGP members, has risen to 264. A total of 229 personnel entered Bangladesh by Tuesday morning, and in the afternoon, 35 more joined them, according to the BGB headquarters.
The border dwellers spent three consecutive days and three nights in fear and panic due to the report of continuous bullets and bombs.Amid fear and panic, mortar shells have landed again from Myanmar. Fearing for their lives, the locals left their homes in search of safe shelter along the border.
Md Anwar Hossain, member of Ward No. 5 of Ghumdhum Union, said “In our union there are 20 families from Ward No. 1, 2 and 3, 20 families from Tanchangya Para, Vajabaniya Tanchangya Para, 30 families from Tumbru Konar Para, 20 families from Ghumdhum Purba Para and 10 families from Tumbru Hindu Para have taken shelter in the houses of their relatives in various areas including nearby Cox’s Bazar Ukhiya, Morichya, Kot Bari since Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, another mortar shell fired from Myanmar landed in the yard of a house owned by one Syed Nur Sikder at Madhyampara under Ghumdhum on Tuesday morning.
Ghumdhum Union Parishad Chairman AKM Jahangir Aziz said: “From 6:00am on Tuesday, gunshots were heard in the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) Battalion Camp-2 area near the Ghumdhum border.”
“Around 9:00am, a mortal shell suddenly hit a tree in the boundary of Syed Nur Sikder and former Lt Naik Dr Nurul Islam behind Ghumdum High School and hit one side of Syed Nur Sikder's residence. However, there were no casualties,” he added.
Palongkhali union parishad chairman M Gafuruddin Chowdhury said that fighting has intensified inside Myanmar. The border area is shaking with the sound of explosion. Many BGP members are fleeing into Bangladesh via the Rahmater Beel border, and BGB members have seized arms and ammunition of the fleeing people.
Eight Rohingya also infiltrated into Bangladesh territory early on Tuesday and they are also in the custody of BGB, he added.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday summoned Myanmar Ambassador to Bangladesh, U Aung Kyaw Moe, and strongly protested the incidents along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
Miah Md Mainul Kabir, director general (Myanmar wing) at the ministry, handed over the protest note to the Myanmar ambassador during a meeting at the state guesthouse Padma.
Aung Kyaw was summoned just a day after two people – a Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya man – were killed and a child was injured as a mortar shell from the conflict-ridden region of Myanmar hit a house at Jolpaitoli under Ghumdhum union in Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban Monday afternoon.
The government has kept the BGB members on a high alert to prevent any infiltration through the Myanmar border during the conflict.
Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, director general (DG) of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), said whatever the situation appears in Myanmar, Bangladesh will not allow the entrance of Rohingyas anymore.
The BGB DG said this after placing wreaths at the grave of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Tungipara of Gopalganj on Tuesday.
“The overall situation along the border is under our control. And from now on, we will no longer permit the entry of Rohingya people in Bangladesh,” he said categorically.
Around 65 Rohingyas have attempted to enter Bangladesh but they were promptly turned away, he said.
Meanwhile, many of the BGP members who have taken refuge are injured. So far 9 BGP members have been given medical care at Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital under the supervision of BGB. Four of them have been sent to Chattogram Medical College Hospital on Monday night, said Md Ashikur Rahman, Resident Medical Officer (RMO) of Cox’s Bazar District Sadar Hospital.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun on Tuesday detailed the collaborative efforts of Bangladesh Police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and local administration to maintain law and order at the Ghumdhum border in Bandarban, following directives from the government.
The IGP said “We have heightened security measures around the Rohingya camps. The Armed Police Battalion (APBn), along with district police, are on high alert, and BGB is actively patrolling the border. Our forces are fully supported in their duties by the local administration, BGB, and intelligence agencies.”
Earlier, on Monday, two people were killed and a child was injured after a mortar shell, reportedly fired by Myanmar, fell on the Ghumdum border in Bandarban.
A case was filed on Tuesday over the death of two people - a Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya man - who were killed after a mortar shell, reportedly fired by Myanmar, fell on the Ghumdum border in Bandarban on Monday.
The case was filed with Naikhongchhari police station, said Saikat Shaheen, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Bandarban on Tuesday.
The length of Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar is about 283 km. Major part of it fell in Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar districts.
The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.
It is a member of the armed ethnic group alliance that recently gained strategic territory in Myanmar’s northeast.
Along with the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army — operating together under the name of the Three Brotherhood Alliance — it launched a coordinated offensive on October 27, 2023, in the northern Shan state along the border with China.
Currently, the number of Rohingya registered in 33 shelter camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf is 12 lakh. Of these, 7 lakh came from Rakhine State in the months after August 25, 2017. Even in six years of the Rohingya influx, not a single Rohingya could be sent back to Myanmar. Although repatriation was attempted twice before, it failed.