Tensions spill over Tumbru border

At least 68 Myanmar border guards, 15 of them bullet-hit, took refuge in Bandarban yesterday as fighting raged close to the border in the district's Tumbru area.

The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) disarmed them and took them into custody in Naikhhongchhari upazila of Bandarban, said a press release issued by the BGB last night.

Amid the gun battle between Myanmar troops and the armed group called Arakan Army, bullets and mortar shells crossed the border again yesterday, leaving at least three Bangladeshi citizens injured.

Terrified residents of Tumbru said they started hearing gunshots around 3:00am, and the firing went on until last night without a pause.

After a sleepless night, many families with young children left the area on foot, some carrying small sacks of food and other essentials.

Abu Siddique, an elderly man who was walking with a stick around 3:00 in the afternoon, said he saw a bullet pierce the wall of his hut in Konarpara earlier in the day.

"Then I left the house. But the goats and cows are still there. We may end up losing everything," he said.

Many of the men were still in their huts in the area because they were reluctant to leave their farm animals and other belongings.

Harun Amini, another local man, said a mortar shell fell on his backyard even though his house is more than a kilometre away from the border.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader yesterday sought China's intervention in the matter, reports BSS.

"Gunshots are there. The public is in panic… It's only natural that people would get scared …. This is why I have sought China's intervention," the minister for road transport and bridges said at a views-exchange meeting with reporters at his office.

In the morning, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen paid a courtesy call on Quader.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal in the afternoon said the foreign ministry had begun the process of sending back the Myanmar Border Guard Police members.

Asked about the possibility of yet another Rohingya influx, he said, "No one should come here now…. If the Rohingya people think that there is a war there, they should go somewhere else. We will not allow anyone to enter at this moment."

BANGLADESHIS INJURED

A man named Ferdous got shot when Myanmar troops opened fire from a helicopter, said a local man named Abdur Rahim who took the victim to a MSF Hospital in Ukhiya, Cox's Bazar.

Around 5:30pm, another man named Shamsul Alam was taken to the same hospital with bullet wounds, locals said.

Shamim Hossain, officer-in-charge of Ukhiya Police Station, said 15 Myanmar border guards with bullet wounds were treated at the MSF facility.

The Daily Star correspondent visiting Tumbru saw countless bullets and explosives crossing the border. A mortar shell landed half a kilometre inside Bangladesh.

Locals said they saw helicopters dropping bombs twice during the day.

The Arakan Army has reportedly captured many areas of Rakhine state in recent days. According to sources, Arakan fighters captured all the Border Guard Police outposts along the Naikhongchhari border several months ago.

But the junta had a base known as Right Camp across the border from Tumbru. The Arakan fighters are now trying to take over the camp, sources said.

Locals said Myanmar junta and Arakan rebels were mainly exchanging fires on two hills within a two-kilometre radius of the border. They have been hearing intermittent gunshots since 3:00pm on Saturday.