Clashes With Rebel Troops, Myanmar Border Guard Escapes To Bangladesh

JAKARTA - At least 95 Myanmar border guards, some of whom were injured, fled to Bangladesh over the past few days, as fighting escalated between rebel forces in Myanmar and military junta forces, officials in Bangladesh said on Monday.

Since carrying out a coup against the elected government in 2021, the military junta has faced its biggest challenge, seeking to stem the bloody uprising that led the pro-democracy parallel government-backed anti-junta group to control several military and city posts.

The sound of gunfire was heard from across Myanmar's border in Cox's Bazar District, southeastern Bangladesh, where nearly one million Muslim minority members from Myanmar live in huts made of bamboo and plastic, after fleeing a military crackdown there in 2017.

Members of the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) entered Bangladesh with their weapons, 15 of whom suffered gunshot wounds while crossing the border, said Shariful Islam, spokesman for the Bangladesh Border Guard, on Monday, adding injured victims received treatment at various hospitals.

BGP troops were accommodated in the nearest Bandarban district before they were sent back to Myanmar, said Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, a Bangladeshi refugee aid and repatriation commissioner based in Cox's Bazar.

"I was asked if BGP could safely take shelter in a transit camp built in Bandarban to repatriate Rohingya refugees. The camps are empty," Rahman said.

Bullets and mortars from across Myanmar's border landed in Bangladesh on Monday, killing at least two people, a government official in Cox's Bazar said.

"A Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya were killed and a child injured near the border due to a mortar fired from Myanmar," said Mohammad Shamsud Douza, deputy government official Bangladesh in charge of refugees.

It is known that many residents on the Bangladeshi border have fled to the homes of relatives who are far from violence for fear, he said.

Panic has gripped refugee camps in Myanmar and many are waiting to cross into Bangladesh as supply chains are cut off due to the ongoing conflict, according to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

"Once upon a time we heard gunshots from Myanmar. Some Rohingya Muslims want to flee here because they are constantly living in fear without basic needs," said Rohingya refugee Oli Hossain.

"In fact, we live in fear because of gunshots," he said.