Myanmar security forces have laid landmines during the attacks on villages and along the Bangladesh border, posing a grave risk to Rohingya Muslims fleeing atrocities, Human Rights Watch said in a press release issued today.

"The dangers faced by thousands of Rohingya fleeing atrocities in Burma (Myanmar) are deadly enough without adding landmines to the mix," Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of the rights organization, said.

The Myanmar government should immediately stop using antipersonnel landmines, which "kill and maim without distinction", the HRW said asking the country to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

According to witness accounts, independent reporting, and photo and video recordings, Myanmar soldiers have in recent weeks laid antipersonnel landmines at key crossing points on Myanmar's border with Bangladesh.

The Myanmar government has accused the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) of using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against infrastructure and security forces, HRW says.

Two Rohingya refugees from inner areas of Rakhine State -- one from Buthidaung and another from Rathedaung township -- told Human Rights Watch that they saw the Myanmar military laying antipersonnel mines on roads as the military entered and attacked villagers.

On September 4, a landmine detonated on a path used by many refugees near the hamlets of Taung Pyo Let Yar, about 200 meters from the Bangladesh border.

The rights body witnessed smoke arising from the hamlets, suggesting burning by the military that caused villagers to flee. The next day, three Rohingya men were wounded in three separate landmine explosions near the same border point.

In her September 21 address to the UN General Assembly in New York, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused Myanmar of laying landmines along the border to prevent Rohingya from fleeing the violence. According to Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) officials, at least five people have been killed and 12 injured from landmine blasts.

Since late August, Myanmar security forces, following a coordinated attack by alleged ARSA militants, have carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing involving mass arson, killing, and other abuses against the Rohingya population, causing the flight of more than 420,000 people to neighboring Bangladesh.