Panic grips the locals in bordering areas of Cox's Bazar's Whaikhyang and Bandarban's Tambru, as heavy gunfire and intermittent shelling on the Myanmar side have been heard again after a pause of 10 days.

Residents of the bordering villages said they heard the sound of gunfire and shelling from the Myanmar side around 11:00pm on Sunday and it continued till 8:30am yesterday.

At least 3,127 families comprising 15,000-20,000 people live within 500 metres of the border in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar, while around 300 families with 1,200-1,500 members reside in Tambru area close to the border. Besides, 4,200 Rohingyas have been living at a camp in no-man's land of the Tambru border over the last five years.

There have been reports of shelling and heavy gunfire in Myanmar close to the Bangladesh border over the last two months, as tensions between the Myanmar Armed Forces and the Arakan Army escalated into violent conflicts in Myanmar's Rakhine and southern Chin in June.

Earlier in November 2020, the two sides had reached a temporary ceasefire.

Talking to reporters yesterday, Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed, director general of the Border Guard Bangladesh, said the border guards have been on high alert along the border with Myanmar.

"The BGB has remained very watchful and taken up positions [along the border]," he said after visiting Tambru and other border outposts in Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban.

"Since this is an internal issue of Myanmar, it's their concern to deal with."

The BGB chief further said Myanmar's border guards agreed to hold a flag meeting with them.

"The flag meeting is expected to take place very soon," he added.

Meanwhile, the local administration has formed committees with the ward members and councillors of the bordering areas as their heads to prevent any Rohingya from entering Bangladesh illegally.

"We have formed the committees based on blocks," Erfanul Hoque Chowdhury, acting upazila nirbahi officer of Teknaf, told this newspaper yesterday.

As a tense situation prevails in the bordering areas, these committees will be vigilant so that no Rohingya can enter Bangladesh crossing the Naf River, he said.

He further said the local administration is also keeping a watch over the families in the bordering areas.

GUNSHOTS, SHELLING

Jalal Ahmed, a member of ward no-1 of Whaikhyang union parishad, said the sound of gunfire was heard from the Myanmar side around 11:00pm on Sunday. It continued till 8:30am yesterday.

"The people in the bordering area are now in a state of panic...," he said yesterday.

Those living close to the Tambru border also heard gunfire and shelling around 1:15am yesterday, said Dil Mohammad, chairman of the management committee at the Rohingya camp in no-man's land of the border.

Firing continued till 7:30am yesterday, he added.

Sayed Bashar, a resident of Konapara in Tambru bordering area, said he woke up to the sound of heavy gunfire around 3:30am yesterday.

AK Jahangir Aziz, chairman of Ghumdhum union parishad in Naikhongchhari upazila, said life in the bordering area  was getting back to normal after gunfire and shelling in Myanmar stopped about 11 days ago.

But tensions again flared up in the area since Sunday night, he added.