Myanmar 'rebel' arrested as joint forces raid hills

A joint team of the army and police detained a suspected member of Myanmarese rebel group Arakan Army during a combing operation in Rajasthali upazila of Rangamati early yesterday.

Myanmar national Aung Nu Young, 25, was captured at a house near Nayajhiri College in a remote area, said OC Wahidullah Sarker of Rajasthali Police Station.

The operation was launched in Chittagong Hill Tracts around 10:00pm on Wednesday, hours after the rebel group attacked a BGB camp in Bandarban that left one soldier injured, according to Border Guard Bangladesh sources.

The “rebel” was arrested from a room of the two-storey house of Ranaiju Rakhine. Police suspect that Ranaiju might have links with Arakan Army, added the OC.

“Aung Nu Young bore marks of splinter wounds. He seems to have been injured in a mine explosion,” BGB Director General Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed told a press conference at the force's headquarters in the capital yesterday.

BGB members later joined the combing operation that ended around 1:00pm yesterday.

The joint team broke open the door of Ranaiju's bedroom and seized three sets of combat uniforms of Arakan Army, around 30 yards of cloth of the uniform, three cameras, three laptops and a mobile phone. Three motorbikes and two horses were also seized, said BGB sources.

The OC said Aung Nu Young had been residing in the house for one and a half months.

The BGB chief at the press briefing said the drive in the hilly areas bordering Myanmar would continue as long as they deemed it necessary.

A total of around four to five army platoons and 10 to 12 BGB platoons will join the drive by today, he added.

Aziz, who visited the Bandarban attack spot yesterday, said they found rocket shells, bullets, a belt and some other things that proved the presence of Myanmar rebels.

Some 50 Arakan Army men attacked BGB personnel near Boro Modak camp in Thanchi border area, leaving nayek Zakir Hossain bullet-hit, he mentioned.

BGB sources said Zakir is out of danger and has been undergoing treatment at the Combined Military Hospital in Chittagong.

Trails of dragging people and testimony of locals suggest that some Myanmar rebels sustained injuries during Wednesday's gunfight, said the DG.

“Locals told us they saw people in olive green uniforms taking away eight to 10 injured. Some of them might be dead.”

The BGB didn't expect such an incident would happen as there was no insurgency inside Bangladesh's territory, he noted. “No war situation prevailed in the border with Myanmar so that their army could swoop on the BGB camp.”

The DG said the rebel group might have carried out Wednesday's attack after being angered by the seizure of 13 horses by BGB men the previous day. The animals were being sent to the rebels through the area, he added.

Aziz said there is no den of Arakan Army in the hill districts, but its members might have trespassed on the area at different times.

Though there is no permanent camp of security forces in remote areas, the BGB send its members there if any Myanmar separatist is seen, he mentioned.

“The Myanmar authorities once in a while claim that separatists including members of Arakan Army receive training from BGB; fight against Myanmar forces and return [to Bangladesh territory]. But the attack on the BGB has proved their allegation was baseless.”

Bangladesh, said the BGB chief, has around 539 kilometre unguarded border, including 171 kilometre with Myanmar, in the hilly areas.

Border observation posts have been set up along 110km border line in the last one year. More observation posts would be built in the unguarded border areas, he noted.