Bangladesh sending back more Myanmar soldiers who fled conflict across border

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) — A ship of the Myanmar Navy landed at Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district Sunday to take back over 130 soldiers who had taken refuge across the border last month from a longstanding conflict in their junta-ruled country.

The same ship also brought back 45 Bangladeshi nationals who had completed prison sentences in Myanmar, Bangladeshi officials confirmed to Anadolu.

Earlier, 134 members of Myanmar's border police and army personnel were taken to Cox's Bazar Jetty. Several lieutenant colonels and two major-rank officers were among those who escaped from Myanmar.

"Sending back Myanmar soldiers is in progress and we expect to complete all the legal formalities to begin their voyage before noon in Bangladesh time," Md. Mahfuzul Islam, the Cox's Bazar superintendent of police told Anadolu.

On April 25, 173 Bangladeshi nationals had returned home from Myanmar after their imprisonment. Bangladesh later sent back 618 Myanmar security forces, including border police, soldiers, customs officers, and other government officials and their family members.

With the most recent third phase, the total number of Myanmar soldiers who fled across the border rose to 752.

Myanmar border police began fleeing to Bangladesh in February as conflict escalated between junta forces and the Arakan Army and other insurgent groups in the Southeast Asian nation.

This conflict also pushed persecuted Rohingya Muslims to try to cross into Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, where some 1.2 million Rohingya are already living since fleeing a crackdown by Myanmar's security forces in August 2017.