At least 58 Myanmar troops fled conflicts to Bangladesh seeking shelter crossing hilly Bandarban border on Sunday with arms and ammunition amid barrage of firing in Rakhain State.
Senior commanders of the Border Guard Bangladesh told New Age that they were witnessing the heavy firing along bordering Tumbru area in Naikhyangchari.
The government sought Chinese help for the de-escalation of the Myanmar conflict, said roads and bridges minister Obaidul Quader, also the ruling Awami League general secretary.
About the entry of the Myanmar force to Bangladesh, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that they believed that they would repatriate those troops soon.
He told a group of journalists at the ministry that Bangladesh did not want war with anyone.
‘I am right on the border as heavy firing continues,’ a senior BGB commander said at about 6:00pm from Naikhyangchari. Another commander said at 8:40pm that sporadic firing continued triggering spill-over effect and the security in the bordering region was intensified.
At least 58 members of Myanmar army and Border Guard Police, both in uniforms or plain clothes, crossed the border between 8:00am and 7:00pm with arms and ammunition without hoisting any white flag or raising their hands, witnesses and BGB officials said.
One of the senior BGB officials said that they had disarmed the Myanmar soldiers and took them in their custody as ‘intruders.’
‘We kept them at a structure and seized their arms. All of them are from Tambru Right Camp inside Myanmar,’ the official said.
‘We will take action in this regard after getting instructions from the high up,’ the BGB official said, adding, ‘We are in continuous contact with the police and civil administration.’
Many of them were injured and rushed to nearby hospitals.
Doctors Without Borders head of mission in Bangladesh Antonino Caradonna said on Sunday that their Kutupalong Hospital in Cox’s Bazar received a large number of patients, following fighting in Myanmar.
As of 7.00pm , 17 patients were admitted to Kutupalong Hospital, and MSF medical teams were assessing their conditions.
‘We are closely monitoring the situation and express our concern for people living on both sides of the border who are affected by violence,’ said Antonino Caradonna.
Panic gripped people living in the remote villages of Naikhyangchari amidst continuous heavy firing and mortar shelling across the border in Myanmar started at about 2:00am and spotted artillery shells in the border in the morning.
Unofficial footage showed that Myanmar border troops were coming to Bangladesh with their weapons.
Bandarban deputy commissioner Shah Mojahid Uddin said that the authorities were examining the ranks and files and details identities of the ‘intruders’ for further course of action.
He told New Age that five bordering primary schools were shut until situation improves while public transports were restricted at places or kept some road off the traffic for security reason.
The district senior official also said that the local union parishad leaders were asked to take the local people to safer locations. ‘Many of the bordering people already have gone to their relative’s places,’ he added.
Bangladeshi national Prabindra Dhar, meanwhile, suffered bullet injury in firing from Myanmar, said Bandarban police superintendent Shaikat Shahin.
Mohib Ullah, a resident at Ukhia in Cox’s Bazar who visited the troubling areas, told New Age that two youths were also injured after a Myanmar gunship opened fire in the afternoon.
Thailand-based The Irrawaddy news portal reported that the ethnic Arkan Army seized Myanmar military battalion base amid an escalating offensive in Rakhine State on January 30. It also reported on January 1 that Arkan Army was targeting the remaining two military bases and other junta outposts in the township.
The Arkan Army is a member of the Brotherhood Alliance, which also includes the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and Ta’ang National Liberation Army, according to the report.
Since launching ‘Operation 1027’ on October 27, 2023, the ethnic alliance has seized most of northern Shan State including some 20 towns and vital trade routes with China, said the report.
The alliance halted its offensive in the second week of January after agreeing a China-brokered ceasefire deal with the military regime.
The Arkan Army has, however, been conducting a large-scale offensive across northern Rakhine and Paletwa in neighbouring Chin State since November 13, 2023.
John Quinley, director at Bangkok-based Fortify Rights, said the fighting resulted in reports of some Myanmar border guard forces crossing into Bangladesh amid conflict.
Fighting has increased in Rakhine State since November 2023 between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar junta, he said.
All those involved must not indiscriminately attack civilians and provide humanitarian assistance and protection for those caught in the middle, he added.
Bangladesh Sangbadh Sangstha, the state-owned news agency, reported that road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader, also the ruling Awami League general secretary, expressed concerns over the situation as it was affecting Bangladesh frontlines.
He sought Chinese ‘intervention’ to deescalate the conflict in view of Beijing’s close contacts with ‘Burmese authorities’.
‘The internal war is their [Myanmar] domestic concern. But, when the sound of gunfights is heard in the border, naturally it creates panic in public mind. We, therefore, expected Beijing’s intervention,’ Quader told reporters after his meeting with the Chinese envoy to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar stretches 271.0 kilometres from the tri-point with India in the north, to the Bay of Bengal in the south.
Many Myanmar troops reportedly fled conflict and took refuge in India recently.-New Age
