A mortar shell lies unexploded after it lands at Pacchimkul in Tumbru border region of Naikhyangchari amid fierce clashes inside Myanmar territory on Saturday. — New Age photo
Firing inside bordering Rakhine in Myanmar continued on Saturday causing panic among the Bangladesh national at Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar.
Witnesses said they heard big bangs on the other side on the border alongside sound of sporadic firing throughout the day.
The Irrawaddy reported on Friday that the Arakan Army said that it seized the last remaining Myanmar junta stronghold in the Rakhine State city of Mrauk U.
The rebel group said in a statement that it sank three naval landing crafts on Wednesday and Thursday during a junta counteroffensive and fighting continued.
‘We know there is a camp of Myanmar border force very close to zero line and we suspect the firing between Arakan Army and Myanmar army intensified,’ said Unchiprang resident Saidul Farhad, adding, ‘We also heard the sound of heavy artillery.’
Local people said that many bullets were landed inside the Bangladesh territory.
On Saturday, one unexploded mortar shell was spotted in a paddy filed at Tambru’s Pacchimkul of Naikhyangchari in Bandarban, said a police official.
The official said that the B order Guard Bangladesh marked the shell for its disposal.
In another development, the Cox’s Bazar police on Saturday produced 23 Rohingyas before the district court seeking them in its custody for interrogation in an arms case after border guards filed the case on Friday, three days after their reported arrests with arms and weapons.
Cox’s Bazar senior judicial magistrate Fahdima Sattar posted for Monday the hearing in the remand petition.
Police officials said that the 23 Rohingyas were linked to border-based suspected crime kingpin Nobi Hossain-led group and held on February 6 with 868 bullets and 12 assault rifles and pistols, and 13 magazines.
District police superintendent Mahfuzul Islam said that 17 of the 23 Rohingyas possessed family counting number card issued by Bangladesh and United Nations while the biometric information of six others were not available.
The police officials said that those Rohingya were residents of Balukhali camps at Ukhia.
‘We need to interrogate them how did they go to the bordering area,’ Mahfuzul Islam said.
Asked why they were produced in the court four days after their arrests by the border guards, the police official said the BGB personnel were busy in protecting border after the arrest and there was firing along the border which was dangerous to ferry them to the nearby police station.
About the arrest, BGB director general Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui on Thursday said that they captured some ‘extremists’.
Some 330 Myanmar Border Guard Police, army personnel and civilian staff and a few of their family members have taken shelter in Bangladesh since February 4 amid clashes between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army.
Earlier on February 5, two people were killed in Bangladesh after a mortar shell fired from Myanmar landed and exploded on the Bangladesh side along the Gumdum border. In Cox’s Bazar, the authorities found another body on Thursday and recovered it on Saturday.
Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, on Friday said that fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine State surged in recent weeks, causing civilian casualties and large-scale displacement, Myanmar’s junta and the Arakan Army ethnic armed group should take immediate measures to minimise harm to ethnic Rohingyas and other civilians caught up in the hostilities.
Since January 2024, Myanmar military forces have attacked Arakan Army fighters deployed in Rohingya villages particularly in south Buthidaung township, which has resulted in civilian casualties and destruction of property, according to local residents, Rohingya groups, and the media.
Over 100,000 people in Rakhine State, many displaced by previous violence, have again had to relocate, the statement said.
Rohingya villagers said that all the beds in the hospital in Buthidaung and local clinics were filled and that the facilities had stopped admitting people, the statement read.
Many people fled for shelter in nearby villages but have had little to no access to food or medical supplies, and received no humanitarian support, it said.
New Age
