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Bangladesh Border Guard troopers on guard at the banks of
Naf river in Cox's Bazar. The photo was taken yesterday, November 23, 2016.
Photo: Anisur Rahman
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107
Rohingyas, 7 boats pushed back
Star Online Report
Bangladesh’s border troopers have pushed back 107 more Rohingyas
in land and seven boats on the Naf River in Cox’s Bazar since last night until
this morning.
Seven boats filled to the brim with Rohingyas trying to flee
persecution in Rakhine state of Myanmar and enter Bangladesh were turned back
at dawn at Teknaf upazila, our local correspondent reports.
Teknaf Border Guard Battalion-2 Captain Abuzar Al Jahid said
his company troopers pushed back the boats along the Hoaikong-Jadimbura bank.
He could not give a head count of the Rohingyas.
Meanwhile, the troopers sent back 107 Rohingyas, who were
already inside Bangladesh, through Tongru border point in Naikhhangchhari Upazila
last night.
Cox’s Bazar BGB Captain Lt Col Imranullah Sarkar said among
them includes 62 peoples who were held by Teknaf police during a combing
operation on the Teknaf-Chittagong highway yesterday.
Meanwhile, Teknaf police and Ukhia police held four people
over allegedly helping the Rohingyas to enter Bangladesh, according to Ukhia
Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Abdul Majid.
Refugees
slipping in, getting help:
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| Rohingya refugee Nur Sahara in the arms of a Rohingya man at Lambabil in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar yesterday. They had crossed the border into Bangladesh the night before. Sahara was crying in fear as she had seen a photojournalist wearing boots. She had witnessed men in boots torture people in her village across the border. Photo: Anisur Rahman |
Pinaki Roy with Mohammad Ali Jinnat, Cox's Bazar
Wearing a burqa, Rashida Khatun was waiting in front of
Lambabil fish market along the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf highway yesterday afternoon. Two
children -- both in tattered clothes -- and an elderly woman were with her.
None of them was carrying any luggage. They kept waiting for a three-wheeler or
a bus to go to a slum near Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in Teknaf.
Asked, Rashida, who turned out to be a Rohingya from
Myanmar, said she entered Bangladesh on Tuesday night by crossing the Naf River.
She and all her family members were together. But they had to split into small
groups to enter Bangladesh illegally without being spotted by the border
guards.
Like her, several thousand Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh
over the last one week with the help of locals to escape persecution in
Myanmar's Rakhine State, said locals in Teknaf.
Deeply concerned over the situation, Bangladesh foreign
ministry yesterday summoned the Myanmar envoy in Dhaka, and asked him to tell
his government to take urgent measures so that Muslim minorities in Rakhine
State are not forced to seek shelter across the border.
Meanwhile, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has
expressed grave concern over reports of serious human rights violations against
Rohingya civilians in the ongoing security operation in Rakhine State.
Talking to these correspondents, Rashida, who is from a
village in Zambunia of Maungdaw, said she entered Bangladesh along with her
eight-year-old brother Nur Alam and her relative's six-year-old daughter Nur
Sahara. After crossing the border, Rashida had luckily chanced upon her aunt
Mubina Khatun, who was accompanying the three, near Lambabil earlier in the
morning. Rashida and her family members reached the border four days ago.
Later, they crossed the river by small boats and arrived at Hausher Dweep,
which marks the Bangladesh border with Myanmar, on Tuesday morning.
But Border Guard Bangladesh personnel caught them along with
300 other Rohingyas.
“We spent the whole day at Hausher Dweep yesterday
[Tuesday]. The BGB members gave us rice, banana and buns. Later, they pushed
our boats into Myanmar territory in the evening. But after a while, we came
back with the help of Bangladeshi fishermen,” said Rashida.
She said they crossed the river around 11:00pm on Tuesday,
and spent the night at the house of an unknown person in Lambabil, a village on
the river bank.
Asked, her aunt Mubina, who was taking the three to the slum
near Kutupalong camp, said she along with her husband and two children came to
Bangladesh from Myanmar six years ago by crossing the Naf River. Later, she
gave birth to two children in Bangladesh.
Now they live in the slum near Kutupalong camp. Her husband
Nur Basar works as a day labourer. Mubina also showed the ID card she got
during the last Rohingya census.
About the turbulent situation in Rakhine State, Rashida
claimed it all began last month when “party men attacked Myanmar military
personnel”. But she couldn't say more about these “party men” whom the locals
referred to as members of Myanmar's separatist outfit Rohingya Solidarity
Organisation.
“Later, military personnel came to our village by
helicopters and set fire to our houses,” she said, adding that the army men had
been detaining and torturing Rohingyas since the incident last month.
Locals said though the BGB is catching Rohingya trespassers
and sending them back every day, many of them are coming back with the help of
local fishermen and brokers.
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| The house where several Rohingya people had taken shelter the night before. Photo: Anisur Rahman |
These correspondents found 10 Rohingyas at the house of Shah
Alam, an auto-rickshaw driver, on a hilltop at Lambabil village. They arrived
there on Tuesday night.
Md Salim, one of the 10, said they entered Bangladesh with
the help of fishermen around midnight after BGB men pushed them back from
Hausher Dweep. Eight more Rohingyas took shelter at Mina Bazar, which is close
to Lambabil.
Md Harun, a local journalist from Lambabil, said, “On Sunday
and Monday, at least 1,500 to 2,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh. But the
number was comparatively low yesterday [Tuesday].”
It would not have been possible for them to enter the
country without the locals' help, Harun said.
He mentioned that some brokers are active in the bordering
areas and are taking money from Rohingyas to help them cross the border and
take shelter at different villages.
Locals said Rohingyas are taking shelter not only at
Lambabil and Mina bazaar, but also at other villages or slums.
Asked about the Rohingya trespassers, Md Ibrahim, BGB
commander at Whykong Border Outpost, declined to comment.
Yesterday, BGB caught around 200 Rohingyas while they were
trying to enter Bangladesh illegally. The BGB members held them till evening
and then sent them back to Myanmar.
BGB held a meeting with Myanmar's Border Guard Police (BGP)
in Cox's Bazar. The Bangladesh side was led by Brig Gen Khondoker Farid
Hossain, commander of Chittagong Eastern Zone, while the Myanmar team was
headed by Tu San Lin.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, Farid said the
Myanmar representatives told them that some Rohingyas were trying to trespass
on Bangladesh territory. “But they [BGP] are discouraging them [Rohingyas].”
MYANMAR
ENVOY SUMMONED
Kamrul Ahsan, secretary (bilateral and consular) at the
foreign ministry, summoned Myanmar Ambassador Myo Myint Than, and conveyed to
the envoy the government's deep concern over the current situation.
At the meeting held at foreign ministry in the afternoon,
Ahsan told the ambassador that desperate people from Rakhine State are entering
Bangladesh, seeking safety and shelter across the border, said a ministry press
release.
“Despite our Border Guards' sincere effort to prevent the
influx, thousands of distressed Myanmar citizens, including women, children and
elderly people, continue to cross the border into Bangladesh. Thousands more
have been reported to be gathering at the border crossing,” he said.
Ahsan urged Myanmar to help Bangladesh ensure integrity of
its border and take measures to bring back normalcy in Rakhine State so that
those who have already crossed border or are waiting to cross it can go back to
their villages without fear.
He also called upon the Myanmar government to give due
consideration to the demand from the international community to conduct
impartial probe into the allegations of indiscriminate use of force and human
rights violations in the ongoing military operation in Rakhine State.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh government has asked all its envoys
around the world to brief the officials in their countries of stay about its
position on the Rohingya issue and remove misunderstanding, if any, on why it
doesn't want to host any more Myanmar citizens.
They have been advised to highlight that Bangladesh now
hosts nearly half a million documented and undocumented Rohingya refugees since
1991 and has not deported any Rohingyas.
OIC WORRIED
The OIC has expressed grave concern at the deteriorating
situation in Rakhine State and reports of serious human rights violations,
including torture, rape and summary executions, against Rohingya civilians in
the ongoing security operation.
It pointed out that destruction of homes and mosques has
forced tens of thousands to flee their villages, and subsequent blockade in the
region has created an acute shortage of food, water and essentials, according
to a press statement on the OIC website.
OIC Secretary General Yousef A Al-Othaimeen called for an
immediate cessation of violence and urged the Myanmar authorities to ensure
that the security services act in full compliance with the rule of law.
He also urged the Myanmar government to abide by its
obligations under international law and human rights covenants, and take
concrete steps to prevent further deterioration of the crisis.