Myanmar Conflict: Talks on to send back 179 BGP members

Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said Dhaka is in talks with Naypyidaw to send back another 179 members of Myanmar's Border Guard Police.

The BGP members will be sent back like the 330 Myanmar nationals repatriated earlier, he said while talking to journalists after a meeting with Malaysian High Commissioner Haznah Md Hashim at the former's office in the capital yesterday.

On Monday, 179 BGP members took shelter in Bangladesh amid the fighting between the junta force and the Arakan Army in Rakhine state.

The BGP members from the Angthapaya camp of Myanmar entered Bangladesh through the Jamchhari border in Sadar Union of Bandarban's Naikhongchhari upazila in two phases, according to Border Guard Bangladesh.

This happened due to the volatile situation in Myanmar, said the foreign minister.

In reply to a query, he said, "We keep contact with Myanmar regarding this issue. If necessary, the Myanmar ambassador will be summoned."

Asked why the BGP members are allowed to enter Bangladesh and whether there is any lack of competency, the minister  said, "This is not a matter of competency. They also entered India and they were sent back through discussion. When they were attacked by their opponents, they crossed into Bangladesh."

The 179 BGP members have been taken to BGB Government Primary School in Naikhongchhari upazila town from a tea garden near the zero line, said Shah Mujahid Uddin, deputy commissioner of Bandarban.

They would be repatriated on completion of verification of their identities and other procedures, he said.

Nurul Absar Imon, chairman of Sadar Union Parishad in Naikhongchhari, told The Daily Star that locals are living in panic after the BGP members entered Bangladesh and a union parishad member was shot by a bullet allegedly fired from Myanmar.

He said they heard sounds of gunfire and mortar shell explosions from the other side of the border for several days until Sunday. Now the situation is calm but the people are afraid, he added.

On February 15, a total of 330 Myanmar nationals, who fled to  Bangladesh to escape the fighting in Myanmar, were sent back to their  homeland. They included 302 BGP members.

During the fighting along the border areas, a Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya man were killed on February 5 when a mortar shell fired from Myanmar exploded in Bandarban's Ghumdhum.