Myanmar shoots on Rohingyas at Bandarban border

Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) today fired gun shots at some Rohingya refugees near Toombro border on Naf river in Bandarban.

The incident took place at the no man’s land of the river near the border under Naikhongchhari upazila of the district around 1:15pm, said Lt Col Manjurul Ahsan Khan, director of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) battalion 34.

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The Rohingya refugees were staying on boats at the no man’s land since last night as they were trying to cross the Naf river to enter Bangladesh territory, he said.

The Rohingyas could not enter the Bangladesh territory as BGB members enforced zero tolerance against the refugees entering Bangladesh illegally, the BGB official also said, adding that it could not be confirmed if there was any casualty.

More BGB men have been deployed at the border after the incident as tension prevails there at this moment, he added. 

Bangladesh shares with Myanmar a 272-kilometre border that falls in Bandarban and Cox's Bazar. Of this, a 52-km stretch is in the Naf river.

Yesterday, BGB said they sent back 146 Rohingyas hours after they entered the country.

Muslim militants in Myanmar staged a coordinated attack on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine State yesterday. 

The office of de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said 12 security officials had been killed alongside 77 militants -- the highest declared single-day toll since fighting broke out last year.

The fighting marked a major escalation in a simmering conflict in the northwestern state since last October, when similar attacks prompted a big military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses, it mentioned.