Panic gripped the people living in the remote villages of Naikhyangchari under Bandarban district amid continued heavy firing and mortar shelling across the border in Myanmar.
Local people said that they had heard the sound of sporadic gunshots and mortar shelling between the evening and midnight on Tuesday and spotted two artillery shells the following morning along the border.
Thailand-based The Irrawaddy reported on Wednesday that the Arakan Army re-launched attacks on Myanmar’s regime in Ramree town on the Rakhine State coast.
The Myanmar junta previously bombarded the island town for weeks with fighter jets and gunboats before fighting restarted this week, according to media reports.
Bordering people said many soldiers of the Myanmar junta regime have gathered near the Bangladesh border after losing control in the north over the past few weeks, causing further panic among residents.
Both Bandarban deputy commissioner Shah Muzahid Uddin and police superintendent Shaikat Shahin visited the panic-stricken locals.
‘Measures have been taken to stop any unwarranted influx [into Bangladesh],’ Muzahid told New Age after visiting the locals.
Shaikat admitted that there was tension prevailing in the area but said that they had spoken to the people to assure them of security. He said that BGB was working on the frontlines while additional police had also been deployed.
The Border Guard Bangladesh commanding officer for Teknaf, Lieutenant Colonel Md Mohiuddin Ahmed, said that they heard repeated gunshots and intensified their patrolling in the Cox’s Bazar area.
Bandarban district education officer Muhammad Faridul Alam Hossaini said that all five primary schools, one high school, and two madrassahs in Naikhyangchari continued academic activities. He added that one of these two madrassahs was within 100 yards of the international border.
Bandarban deputy commissioner Muzahid Uddin said that they spoke to locals as the Secondary School Certificate and its equivalent examinations would begin on February 15.
The Cox’s Bazar district administration held a meeting with authorities concerned on Monday and decided to show ‘zero tolerance’ to any possible influx from Myanmar.
Cox’s Bazar police superintendent, Mahfuzur Rahman, said that they were in continued contact with the local leadership as sounds of gunshots had been heard in the past few days along the bordering villages.
‘We want no unnecessary panic among the people,’ said Mahfuzur Rahman.
John Quinley, a director at Bangkok-based Fortify Rights, said since November 2023, the conflict in Rakhine between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar junta has caused displacement and increased junta-imposed restrictions.
The junta has attacked Rohingya villages indiscriminately, he said.
‘Humanitarian access has been restricted throughout Rakhine State. This includes aid to the Rohingya and Kaman Muslims in internment camps throughout Rakhine State,’ he said.
‘The junta must stop its campaign of violence and step down from power.’
Quoting the Arakan Army, Irrawaddy said that around 120 regime reinforcements were recently sent to the town, and both sides suffered casualties in the fighting on Tuesday.
It said its troops had seized junta weapons and ammunition and found soldiers’ bodies. On Monday, a junta aeroplane parachuted ammunition to its troops in the town after two airstrikes.
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