Due to the increased violence across the border that resulted in the deaths of two persons in Cox’s Bazar over night and the recent inflow of more than 116 military and paramilitary Burmese personnel, Bangladesh called the envoy of Myanmar to the foreign ministry today.
According to officials, Aung Kyaw Moe, the ambassador of Myanmar to Dhaka, was called to the ministry regarding the deaths of two people in Bangladesh on Monday due to a mortar shell, as well as any developments surrounding the border region.
“Myanmar wing director general of the foreign ministry Miah Md Mainul Kabir strongly protested the incidents of violence in Rakhine state because of its spillover effect on Bangladesh, particularly the deaths of two people in Cox’s Bazar” a foreign ministry spokesman said.
After the armed confrontations on the Myanmar side of the border caused injuries and disturbances in Bangladesh, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud later stated that a strong note of protest was given to the envoy.
“We told him, this is completely unacceptable,” Mahmud said while officials added the envoy assured Dhaka of conveying his government the Bangladesh protest.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), meanwhile, said 116 Myanmar troops this morning fled their posts and battlegrounds and crossed into Bangladesh and this time their regular army soldiers also took refuge in Cox’s Bazar alongside paramilitary Border Guard Police (BGP) and some other government agencies.
“Against the backdrop of armed conflict inside Myanmar, so far 229 personnel of their Border Guard Police (BGP), regular soldiers, immigration officials, policemen and members of other agencies entered Bangladesh,” BGB spokesman Shariful Islam said.
While another officer at the scene stated an identification process was in place to discover the precise identities of the military forces and paramilitary soldiers, he said they had been disarmed and were being held in secure custody.
While the deadly armed conflict between government troops and rebel Arakan Army insurgents visibly escalated further on the other side of the border, BGB officials and local public representatives present at the troubled scene reported that 116 Myanmar soldiers and other officials crossed the border this morning through the Rahamatbil frontier of Ukhia upazila.
The officials and witnesses said several of the 116 soldiers arrived with bullet wounds like their 113 predecessors and some were sent to different hospitals including Chattogram Medical College Hospital for treatment.
Cox’s Bazar’s deputy commissioner Mohammad Shaheen Imran, meanwhile, said three frontier upazilas of Naikhangchhari, Teknaf and Ukhia were asked to prepare for evacuating people to safety in view of the escalated conflicts.
“The upazila administrations have been asked to launch the evacuation considering the field situation,” he said but witnesses informed that many residents by now left their homes at several villagers to safer places as the sound of constant fighting on the other side of the border continued.
There are reports that the army and the Arakan Army are still engaged in heavy combat in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. The Arakan Army is thought to have taken control of the government military and other installations in nearby districts.
