By SM Najmus Sakib
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – At least 68 members of Myanmar’s border police have taken refuge in Bangladesh amid intensifying clashes between the junta’s armed forces and a rebel group inside the Southeast Asian nation, the Bangladesh border force said Sunday.
Of the members of Myanmar’s paramilitary Border Guard Police (BGP) who have crossed into Bangladesh, 15 were being provided treatment, said the Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB).
“They (BGP) intruded through the Tumbru border area of Bangladesh in southeastern Bandarban district with weapons. The BGB, however, has disarmed them and taken them in safe refuge…The next course of action (involving sending them back to Myanmar) is underway,” said the BGB in a statement.
Their weapons and ammunition are in the BGB’s custody.
Another six people who crossed the border into Bangladesh on Sunday were admitted to a hospital in southeastern Cox’s Bazar district who Bangladesh police identified as members of the insurgent group the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), local newspaper The Daily Star reported.
Bangladesh’s Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said that Myanmar’s internal conflict spilled over into Bangladesh's border areas.
Following a meeting with China’s ambassador in Dhaka, he told reporters that Bangladesh has sought China's help to quell the situation along the border.
“The Chinese government has a good relationship with Myanmar. Therefore, we want the Chinese government to help mitigate the conflict inside Myanmar, which has already impacted the Bangladesh border,” he added.
Bangladesh has already sheltered around 1.2 million refugees belonging to Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya Muslim community in Cox’s Bazar. The majority of Rohingya living in Bangladesh fled a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine, Myanmar in 2017.
Bangladesh's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told reporters in Dhaka that security along the border with Myanmar has been beefed up, including to check for any fresh influx from Myanmar.
The situation remains tense inside Bangladesh along the border with Myanmar.
Bandarban's Deputy Commissioner Shah Mujahid Uddin told Anadolu that gunshots were also fired in Bangladesh from Myanmar's Ghumdhum region late Saturday, with the sound of shelling continuing until Sunday.
With primary schools along the border already closed, the shelling caused panic among residents of border villages, the district official confirmed.