A total of 264 members of Myanmars military forces including border guard police (BGP) and security forces have taken refuge in Bangladesh in the past three days as the fighting between the Myanmar army and the rebel Arakan Army escalated at the border between the two countries, said a BGB press release.
Police and BGB, however, are on alert so that no one can infiltrate from Myanmar. They are working to ensure maximum security of the locals living along the border as per the instructions of the higher authorities of the district police, according to sources.
Our Bandarban Correspondent reports another mortar shell from Myanmar landed across the border in Bandarbans Ghumdhum union on Tuesday but no causality was reported, said Md Anwar Hossain, a member of Ward No 5 of Ghumdhum.
Bandarban Deputy Commissioner on Tuesday declared Ghumdhum Govt Primary School as a shelter centre for the residents of three wards under Ghumdhum union at Naikhongchhari upazila in the district.
Many residents of the union left their homes for safety as a tense situation has been prevailing along the border area due to the ongoing fighting between the Myanmar army and the rebel Arakan Army over the last week. Apart from this, mortar shells and bullets from the fighting have been landing in Bangladesh for a few days.
DC Shah Mozahid Uddin made the announcement while visiting the border area around 3:00pm. He asked the residents to take shelter at the school for their safety.
Incidents of firing and hurling mortar shells took place centring Dhekibunia Outpost in Myanmar on the other side of Naikhongchhari border in Bandarban through the Monday night. As a result, at least 13 villages were shaken along the Bangladesh border.
Residents on this side of Bangladesh passed a sleepless night as non-stop sound of firing was heard from 9:00pm on Monday to 6:00am on Tuesday.
Locals said Myanmars Dhekibunia border outpost falls on the other side of the border of Naikhongchhari upazilas Ghumdhum union and Ukhiya upazilas Palongkhali union.
Gunfire and launch of mortar shells have been going on between insurgent group Arakan Army and Myanmars Border Guard Police (BGP) over taking over the Dhekibunia outpost at 11:00pm on Sunday. On Monday, at least two people were killed as mortar shells fired from Myanmar landed in a village across the border while 106 Burmese paramilitary border guards fled their posts and took refuge in Bangladesh.
According to the public relations department of Border Guard Bangladesh-34 and its headquarters, a fierce battle between the Arakan Army and the junta government is being fought on the other side of the border since Sunday.
Myanmars Rakhine State has a border with Bangladesh stretching some 270-kilometre (167-mile) that witnesses frequent clashes since November, when the Arakan Army fighters ended a ceasefire that was largely enforced since a 2021 coup.
But Mondays killing was the first such incident of casualties inside Bangladesh while residents at several bordering villages largely evacuated their homes for safety.
Residents and officials said gunshots are being heard from the Myanmar side since Saturday in frontier areas in Bangladesh, where over one million Myanmars ethnic Muslim minority Rohingyas were sheltered since they fled their homeland in Rakhine in 2017 to evade persecution under a military crackdown.
Security officials also called "unprecedented" the fleeing of the Myanmars BGP forces abandoning their posts amid the insurgency in their own land to take refuge to their BGB counterpart crossing the international border.
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