BGB on high alert as Myanmar increases military presence at Tambru

Image credit: Dhaka Tribune

Foreign Ministry summons the Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka over his country’s move at the border

In a sudden move, the Myanmar security forces has once again heightened its presence in the no man’s land between Bangladesh’s Konarpara and Myanmar’s Tambru border points, sparking fears among the Rohingya people stranded there and renewing the tension between the two neighbours.

A large number of army personnel along with 10 trucks loaded with heavy arms and ammunition were dispatched on the Tambru side of the border strip on Thursday.

Dil Mohammad and Arif Uddin, two leaders of the Rohingyas stuck in the no man’s land, confirmed the military’s manoeuvre to the Dhaka Tribune, saying the heavily-armed troops were massed close to the border.

The army personnel have gradually been gathering in bunkers in the close vicinity of the border for the last couple of days, but they were seen heightening their presence in the area with heavy weapons on Thursday morning,” Mohammad said.

Using ladders, members of Myanmar security forces tried to cross a barbed-wire fence in the no man’s land at 7:40pm, but they retreated as the aggrieved Rohingya began hurling brickbats.

In the evening, the army personnel fired multiple rounds.

Bangladeshi locals at Gumdum’s Tambru, Konarpara and other adjacent areas said the military action led them to become tense, and such sudden movement from Myanmar security forces may hamper the repatriation process.

Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) and army men also issued warnings using loudspeakers and asked the Rohingyas to leave the no man’s land – a tactic they have been using over the past month.

Rohingya leader Dil Mohammad said depression and fear have gripped around 6,500 people who have taken shelter in the no man’s land since August 25 last year, when ethnic conflicts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state sparked the most rapid human exodus seen since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

With tension mounting at Tambru, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel on the Bangladesh side have been ordered to stay on high alert,” BGB Cox’s Bazar Ad-hoc Region Director (operation), Lt Col Khalid Hasan, said.

BGB high-ups in Dhaka also said they were strengthening their positions along the border at Konarpara, under Naikhongchhari’s Ghumdum union in Bandarban.

Border Guard Bangladesh has been put on full alert and took positions along the border,” BGB Cox’s Bazar Ad-hoc Region Director (operation) Lt Col Khalid Hasan said, adding that they were yet to uncover the reason behind the Myanmar army’s move.

“Our intelligence sources said Myanmar’s border police asked the Rohingya living in the no man’s land to move away. They are perhaps trying to push the stranded people towards Bangladesh,” Hasan said.