A Border Guard Bangladesh personnel stands guard next to fleeing Rohingya refugees resting under a makeshift shelter in Bangladesh on Sunday. — AFP photo
The number of Rohingyas entering Bangladesh and crowds of the ethnic minority people of Myanmar along the border to sneak into the country amid heightened border patrols kept rising as violence in Rakhine State continued for the third day on Sunday with death toll from fresh violence crossing 100.
Local people estimated that at least 4,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh in the past three days from Friday, when violence in Rakhine State of Myanmar erupted, while Myanmar government said that 4,000 ‘ethnic villagers’ who had fled their villages had been evacuated, referring to non-Muslim residents of the area.
The United Nations had pulled out non-essential staff from the area, said a spokesman, while Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with the Muslim minority in his weekly address in Rome, reported Reuters.
The death toll from the violence erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by suspected Rohingya insurgents climbed to 104, the vast majority extremists, plus 12 members of security forces and several civilians, according to a Reuters tally based on official releases.
Border Guard Bangladesh director general major general Abul Hossain on Sunday warned that a tough reply would be given to Myanmar if any bullet from their side hit Bangladesh territory.
‘No foreigners’ den will be allowed on Bangladesh land and we’re ready to face any kind of situation along the frontier areas,’ Abul Hossain
said at a briefing after visiting the border area along Ghumdhum border out-post.
Additional forces were deployed along the 271km border with Myanmar to prevent fresh influx of Rohingyas, he said.
The border guard chief issued the warning as local people heard heavy gunshots on Saturday evening and Sunday in the bordering areas of Myanmar from Gumdhum border point in Bangladesh.
Rohingya youth Mohammad Farid, 30, succumbed to bullet injuries, reportedly sustained in Myanmar violence, died at Dumdumia of Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazar, after he managed to cross the River Naff, said border guard battalion-2 commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Robiul Islam.
The body would be returned to Myanmar, he added.
Four more Rohingyas, who sustained bullet injuries in Myanmar violence, were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital Sunday morning taking the tally of such patients to eight, said assistant sub-inspector of the hospital police outpost Md Alauddin Talukder.
Local people said that Rohingya people of all walks of life and ages were sneaking into Bangladesh at wee hours and taking advantage of relaxed border patrol during rain in Ghumdum, Tombroo and others areas of Naikhyangchari upazila of Bandarban.
Border guards thwarted attempts of intrusion by 91 Rohingyas early Sunday, said border guard battalion in Coxe’s Bazar acting commanding officer lieutenant colonel Anwarul Azam.
Of them, 71 Rohingyas were pushed back from Gungdum and Balokhali border and another 20 from Teknaf border, he said.
Border guards and Bangladesh Coast Guard also sent back 240 Rohingyas on Friday and Saturday.
Gumdum union parishad chairman AKM Jahangir Kabir said that 4,000-5000 Rohingyas gathered along the border and a short way into Bangladesh, where they were kept under close guard in an open field.
Border guard battalion-34 commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Manjurul Hassan Khan said that heavy gunshots were heard at Gumdhum border point in Bangladesh Sunday morning from the bordering areas Myanmar.
‘Several thousand Rohingyas gathered at zero line and were cordoned by the border BGB,’ he added.
Kutupalang makeshift Rohingya camp secretary Mohammad Noor said that 1,500-2,000 Rohingyas entered different unregistered camps.
Rohingya leader at Leda makeshift camp Mohammad Ilias said that thousands of Rohingyas were waiting at different points on the Myanmar side of the Naff River. ‘Some of them who are coming to the camp are hiding their Rohingya identities’.
A quarter of Bangladeshis are providing food to Rohingyas on humanitarian ground, although they are worried over influx of Rohingyas putting pressure on the country’s economy as well as low paid jobs, said local government representatives.
Cox’s Bazar’s Rajapalang union parishad chairman Jahangir Kabir Chowdhury said that local people were worried over influx of Rohingyas and it was putting pressure on the economy and low paid job.
He said that his union was close to Ghumdum border and Rohingyas were entering Bangladesh at the wee hours and during rain dodging border patrols.
Local people were providing food to the terrified Rohingyas gathering at the border, said Naikhyangchari’s Gumdhum union parishad member Kamal Uddin.
Bandarban deputy commissioner Dilip Kumar Banik said that local people heard gunshots on Sunday. Hundreds of people gather at Myanmar border and border guards are on alert, he said, adding, ‘No one will be allowed to enter Bangladesh.’
Local people said that it was impossible for anyone to count how many Rohingyas entered Bangladesh but they estimated that the figure would not be less than 4,000.
Myanmar’s minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement Win Myat Aye told Reuters late on Saturday that 4,000 ‘ethnic villagers’ who had fled their villages had been evacuated, referring to non-Muslim residents of the area.
‘We are providing food to the people cooperating with the state government and local authorities,’ said Win Myat Aye. He was unable to describe the government’s plans to help Rohingya civilians.
Fearing more violence, thousands of Rohingyas, mostly women and children, attempted to cross the Naf River separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and the land border.
‘Please save us,’ 61-year-old Amir Hossain told Reuters near the Bangladeshi village of Gumdhum. ‘We want to stay here or else we’ll get killed.’
More than 100 people died since Friday as scores of men purportedly from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army ambushed Myanmar police posts with knives, guns and homemade explosives, killing at least a dozen security force members, reported Agence France-Presse.
Thousands of Rohingya fled towards Bangladesh, but authorities there refused to let most of them in, with an untold number of people, mainly women and children, stranded along the border zone.
At least 100 mainly women and children arrived Sunday at a makeshift camp in Balukhali, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene, many bringing tales of horror from over the border.
Rahima Khatun said she spent the night hiding in the hills after Buddhists in her village torched Rohingya houses and set upon men with machetes and clubs.
‘We grew up with them. I can’t figure out how they could be so merciless,’ she told AFP.
In Rakhine, the bullet-riddled bodies of six members of a Hindu family, including three children and a woman, were discovered Sunday and brought to a hospital in the main northern town Maungdaw.
The victims had allegedly been shot dead by Rohingya insurgents Saturday evening as they tried to flee to Maungdaw, a relative who lived in the town told AFP.
Brussels-based rights group International Crisis Group on Sunday said that Myanmar government had not moved quickly or decisively enough to remedy the deep, years-long policy failures that were leading some Muslims in Rakhine state to take up violence.
Another harsh military response and the continued displacement of scores of thousands to camps in Bangladesh will create conditions ripe for exploitation by transnational jihadists, the rights group said in a statement.
Source: New Age