Rohingya teen killed in landmine explosion

A Rohingya teenage boy was killed in a landmine explosion on the Myanmar side of the border along Bandarban on Friday afternoon, said police.

The dead is Mohammad Jaber, 13, of Kutupalong Lambashia Rohingya camp, said Alamgir Hossain, officer-in-charge of Naikhyangchhari Police Station.

Jaber died near pillar number 40 at Ghumdum in Bandarban's Naikhongchhari upazila when he was returning along with a few others from Myanmar to Kutupalong camp on Friday afternoon, said the OC.

"We suspect that Jaber fell victim to a landmine explosion inside Myanmar as he bore signs of being a victim of landmine explosions," the OC said.

Bangladesh officials have accused Myanmar security forces of planting mines along border areas to prevent the refugees from returning to their villages.

Seeking anonymity, a BGB official said, "Myanmar security forces regularly install mines along Ghumdum area that Rohingyas regularly use."

Anti-personnel mines were banned under a global treaty in 1997.

Myanmar troops have been accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority, with some 740,000 fleeing to Bangladesh since August 2017.

At the height of the mass exodus when tens of thousands of Rohingyas poured into Bangladesh every day, several were killed or seriously hurt in suspected landmine explosions along the border.