Tensions escalate along Bangladesh-Myanmar border: 14 Myanmar Border Guard Police take shelter in Bangladesh

Sanjoy Kumar Barua

At least 14 members of Myanmar’s paramilitary Border Guard Police (BGP) have saught refugees in Bangladesh following heavy gunfight between Myanmar Army and the rebel resistance fighters on Sunday, official said.

“The 14 members of Myanmar’s BGP fled and took shelter in our country. They are now in our custody,” said Lt Col Abdullah Al Masruque, the commander of BGB-34 Battalion in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

Minister of Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan told the journalist, “There are about 14 of them. They are called BGP or Border Guard Police.”

“As you know, they have been fighting with the Arakan Army. At one point, they came here and took shelter. We are speaking to the Myanmar government about the matter,” the home minister said.

Locals of the area said firing began on Saturday afternoon and continued until evening. It resumed later around 3:00 am on Sunday. A shell fired from Myanmar hit the residence of one Nurul Kabir along the Bainshphari border and burnt it. Later, the firefighters rushed to the spot and doused the blaze.

One Prabir Chandra Dhar, 53 a Bangladeshi national, suffered bullet injury in the firing.

Triratan Chakma, primary education officer of Naikhongchhari upazila, said,“The schools of the bordering area have already been shut down while all teachers and students of the schools are in panic”.

Locals 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 the locals.

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’s border with Myanmar stretches 271.0 kilometres.

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.

Thailand-based The Irrawaddy reported that the Arakan Army re-launched attacks on Myanmar’s regime in Ramree town on the Rakhine State coast.

The Myanmar junta previously bombarded the island town for weeks with fighter jets and gunboats before fighting restarted this week, according to media reports.

The Arakan Army took control of a town in Rakhine. Following this, intense gunfire started in the surrounding villages, Irrawaddy also reported.