Myanmar clash: 68 BGP men take refuge in Bangladesh

At least 68 personnel of Myanmar's Border Guard Police (BGP) yesterday took refuge in Bangladesh amid reports of heavy gunfights between the government troops and the rebels in the junta-run country.

"Sixty-eight BGP personnel took shelter in Bangladesh throughout the day since the predawn hours. Fourteen of them crossed the border with bullet wounds and are being treated at different hospitals including health facilities in Rohingya camps," said an official familiar with the development, reports BSS.

He said the BGP men were kept under their counterpart Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) custody in Cox's Bazar while the weapons they carried with them were deposited in the BGB cache, according to the state-run news agency.

The official said many of the soldiers came to Bangladesh territory in combat uniforms with some in plain clothes.

"The BGB informed the development to their Myanmar counterparts," said the official, preferring anonymity.

'Bangladeshis hurt' 

Meanwhile, several Bangladeshis were reportedly injured by bullets from shootouts between Myanmar's army and insurgents across the Naikhongchhari border in Bandarban, local sources told TBS.

Several army helicopters were seen circling the border at 4:30pm, as reported by the correspondent of this newspaper.

A man named Nazrul Islam Titu, 26, was shot from a helicopter.

Anwar Hossain, a member of Ward 5 of Ghumdhum Union, said, "Titu was standing in front of his house. At that time, the bullets fired from a helicopter hit his leg. He was later sent to Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital." 

Another man named Prabir Chandra sustained gunshot wounds in the right hand around 10am yesterday and was taken to a local hospital.

According to locals, a woman named Rahima Begum, 50, was also injured. 

Contacted, Bandarban Superintendent of Police Saikat Shaheen said, "I heard that someone was injured but cannot say the details."

Jahangir Aziz, Ghumdhum Union Parishad's chairman, said, "Reports of sporadic firing across the border persisted throughout Saturday night and Sunday. Residents near the border are very worried."

Bangladesh concerned over escalating conflict 

Bangladesh expressed concerns as the skirmishes in its borders with Myanmar were affecting Bangladesh's frontlines. Road Transport Minister and Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader sought Chinese intervention to de-escalate the conflict given Beijing's close contacts with Burmese authorities, reports BSS.

"The internal war is their [Myanmar] domestic concern. But when the sound of gunfights is heard at the border, naturally it creates panic in the public mind. We, therefore, expected Beijing's intervention,' Quader told reporters after a meeting with the Chinese envoy.

Officials earlier said 14 BGP personnel crossed the border in predawn hours through the Ghumdhum border while a BGB spokesman in Dhaka thereafter asked journalists to await a media briefing on the development but no official briefing was made until yesterday evening.

District administration of Bandarban, where the troubled frontier is located, closed five schools for security reasons fearing mortar shells or stray bullets to landside Bangladesh territory as the gunfights are underway on the other side of the border.

BGB asked local residents to stay indoors or move cautiously for safety while the skirmishes in southern and northern parts of Tombru, also known by the same name in Myanmar, appeared to be fiercest so far. Tombru is located in Ghumdhum union of Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban.

Officials said reports from the other side of the border suggested army helicopters were strafing on rebel fighters escalating concerns of massive casualties.

Residents in frontier villages including local Union Parishad members said sounds of gunfights on the Myanmar side of the border on Saturday night and Sunday panicked residents in villages in the frontier.

Bangladesh earlier ordered an extra security vigil on the border with Myanmar given the gunfights between the Myanmar military and the insurgent Arakan Army, which is active in the bordering Rakhine region of the country.

International media reports suggested several more insurgent groups, some forming alliances among them, are confronting the government army in several parts of Myanmar.

Bangladesh's border with Myanmar stretches 271.0 kilometres (168.4 miles), from the tri-point with India in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south.

Bangladesh played a critical role in sheltering over a million Muslim minority Rohingyas who fled their home in Rakhine and took refuge in Bangladesh to evade persecution, particularly after a 2017 army crackdown but the current crisis visibly has little to do with the Rohingyas.