A tense situation prevailed in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday following the sectarian violence between Rohingya Muslims and majority Buddhists in neighbouring Myanmar.
Residents at Rakhine neighborhoods are living in apprehension of possible attacks by the dominant Rohingyas in the area, our correspondent reports from Teknaf after visiting the area.
Parents stopped sending their children to schools and colleges, and are passing sleepless nights.
The violence that has killed seven people so far is also hampering business activity in Teknaf.
Export and import through Teknaf land port has come to a standstill from Saturday, a day after the riot began in Myanmar, our correspondent quoted the port’s general manager, Abdul Mohaimen, as saying.
Chhya Ain, 36, a Rakhine crab businesswoman, said she is having a tough time carrying crabs from Myanmar through the Naf river to supply other parts of the country.
Our correspondent also saw people at Rohingya neighborhood spending hours in great anxiety.
Rashida Begum, who came to Rohingya neighborhood around four years ago from the Rakhine state, said she was worried about her relatives at Buchidong area in Myanmar, as she heard that at least three people were gunned down there on Monday.
Meanwhile, ANM Nazim Uddin, upazila nirbahi officer of Teknaf, said, “Several camps of police and Border Guard Bangladesh have been set up in the upazila to prevent any untoward incident.”
The general manager of the Teknaf port said the government is incurring a loss of at least Tk 35,000 revenue per day due to suspension of cargo operations at the port.
Around 500 tonnes of goods are unloaded and delivered through the port daily, he said.
Sources in the immigration office of the Teknaf Land Port said a total of 12 Bangladeshi businessmen got stranded in the Rakhine state, where they went few days back on business purpose.
On the other hand, 259 Myanmarese people, who entered Bangladesh with seven-day transit pass, also got stranded following the riot.
Tensions between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas, a stateless people, turned violent in Myanmar’s northwest over the past week, after the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman, widely blamed on Muslims, sparked bloody reprisals, reports Reuters.
The Myanmar government on Sunday declared state of emergency in Rakhine state to deal with the violence.
In the face of the deadly clashes, the UN released a statement on Monday saying it had decided “to temporarily relocate, on a voluntary basis, non-essential international and national” UN staff, affiliated organisations and their families from Rakhine state of Myanmar.
Recent violence in troubled Rakhine state has left seven dead.
Source: The Daily Star
BD must not return these wretched poor ethnically Bengali Muslim Rohingyas and set up tents with food, medicine, etc.and take up the issue with Burma. Hindu India did the same for you.