DHAKA – At least 128 Myanmar Border Guard Police have fled fighting with the Arakan Army in northern Rakhine State since Friday and crossed the border into Bangladesh with their arms and ammunition, Bangladeshi officials said.
They said 88 Border Guard Police arrived from Myanmar on two boats on Sunday morning while the rest came on Saturday and Friday.
This time, they are being held at a government school in the Hnila area of Teknaf town in Cox’s Bazar District.
Three majors – Kyaw Zin Thant, Nyein Chan Aung and Tin Saw Tun – are the most senior officers in the group, Bangladeshi officials said. Most of those who arrived were wearing longyis and parts of their uniforms and carrying weapons.
Officers from Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have controlled the process of handling the Myanmar police. They oversaw the facilities where the personnel were disarmed and had medical check-ups as well as the background screening.
One Bangladeshi official closely monitoring the situation said none of the fleeing border police were injured or in need of medical assistance.
Bangladeshi officials told The Irrawaddy that the Myanmar border police were carrying weapons and ammunition when they crossed the Naf River in two boats near Shahporir Dwip at about 10:15 am on Sunday.
Miah Md Mainul Kabir, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry’s director general for Myanmar, told Dhaka-based daily New Age that more than 80 Myanmar border police sought shelter in Bangladesh on Sunday.
On April 25, 288 Myanmar border police and soldiers were repatriated to Myanmar after crossing into Bangladesh from northern Rakhine State since March 11.
In February 330 Myanmar nationals, including Border Guard Police, army personnel and immigration officials, took shelter in Bangladesh. All of them were repatriated on Feb. 15.
The Arakan Army seized a border guard headquarters in Rakhine State’s northern Maungdaw Township on Friday, prompting junta police to flee to Bangladesh. The regime responded to the capture of the headquarters with air and artillery strikes on Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Pauktaw townships on Friday and Saturday.
Bangladeshi rights champion Mohammad Nur Khan told The Irrawaddy that by allowing a fighting force to enter Bangladesh, the country’s government might be “gradually taking a side.”
Bangkok-based Fortify Rights alleged in an April 26 report that Bangladeshi authorities had beat and forcibly returned Rohingya people fleeing atrocities in Myanmar.
It said new research it conducted found six incidents since February in which BGB forces beat Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh and pushed them back into Myanmar. In total, more than 300 Rohingya people were pushed back to Myanmar in the six incidents, the rights group said.
General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, director general of the BGB, called the allegations “completely false,” saying: “No beating or intimidation took place.”
