Tension mounts at critical point along Bangladesh-Myanmar border: Mortar shells from Myanmar kills two in Bangladesh

Sanjoy Kumar Barua

At least two people were killed and several others including a child were injured in Bangladesh on Monday after mortar shells from Myanmar exploded in Ghumdhum union of Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari upazila following heavy gunfight between Myanmar Army and the rebel resistance fighters, officials said.

The deceased were identified as Hosneara Khatun, 50, a Bangladeshi national,and Nabi Hossain, 68, a resident of Rohingya Camp 8 in Ukhiya, said police.

 “The two were killed at around 2:30 pm at Jalpaitoli village area when mortar shell from Myanmar landed on Hosneara’s house,” said Abdul Mannan, officer in-charge of  Naikhongchhari police station.

Around six years old Hosneara’s grandson, also suffered injuries as the shell exploded, the OC said.

Escalating tensions along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border have reached a critical point said Abdul Hamid, a local journalist of Naikhongchhari .

At least 106 Border Guard Police (BGP) from Myanmar, some of them wounded, have fled to Bangladesh over the last few days as fighting intensifies between rebel forces in Myanmar and the junta regime said Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) official.

Bangladesh’s Refugee, Relief and Repatriation (RRR) commissioner Mohammad Mizanur Rahman said the fierce conflict forced over 400 Buddhist Rakhine people to take refuge near the border but the BGB declined to allow them to enter Bangladeshi territory yet.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Sunday said Myanmar Border Guard Police from Rakhine state had “entered our territory for self-protection” ahead of advancing Arakan Army fighters.

Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said its doctors in Cox’s Bazar had on Sunday received 17 patients “following fighting at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.”

“All the patients had gunshot wounds”, MSF said on Monday. “Two were in life-threatening condition, and five were seriously injured.”

Parts of Myanmar near the 270km border with Bangladesh and India to the north have seen frequent clashes since November.

Important trade hubs on the Chinese border were taken over by an alliance comprising rebels from ethnic minorities and AA insurgents, who together launched an offensive in northern Myanmar in October.

The alliance declared in January that hostilities would end in certain areas, including those close to the border between India and Bangladesh, although this truce was negotiated by China but it does not apply and fighting continues.

Locals from Bangladesh-Myanmar border area said there have been extensive gunfire, mortar shells, and explosive rocket launcher fire between Myanmar’s security forces and the Arakan Army (AA) along the Bangladesh border which has caused widespread panic among them.

Residents in several frontier Bangladesh villages moved to safety amid skirmishes between the Myanmar government troops and the resistance fighters, Arakan Army.

Bangladesh ordered an intensified security vigil on its border with Myanmar amid tensions.

The resistance movement in Myanmar gained momentum three years after a coup ended a short-lived experiment with democracy.

Bangladesh played a critical role in sheltering over a million Muslim minority Rohingyas who fled their home in Rakhine state to evade persecution, particularly after a 2017 army crackdown but the current crisis has little to do with the Rohingyas.