Footage of the blaze quickly spread among Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh through social media, with many quick to blame Myanmar's security forces
Bangladesh officials said on Tuesday a huge fire burned
and gunshots were heard in a village across the border in Myanmar’s
conflict-scarred Rakhine state, where authorities want to return Rohingya
refugees.
A “big fire” was seen raging late Monday in an abandoned
village from Tombru, a frontier post in Cox’s Bazar, a senior Border Guard
Bangladesh (BGB) official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The fire occurred the evening before Bangladesh was due
to start repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees to Rakhine
state under an agreement with Myanmar.
The repatriation process was to begin on Tuesday and last
two years, but was delayed as Bangladesh conceded both sides were not ready for
the huge undertaking.
It is believed the homes ablaze overnight belonged to
Rohingya, the official said. The border region is controlled by Myanmar’s forces,
he added.
Another BGB official told AFP he heard several gunshots
before flames were seen leaping from the village.
It was not possible to independently verify the accounts
as Myanmar has heavily restricted access to the area.
Also Read: Myanmar blames Bangladesh for delayed Rohingya
return https://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2018/01/23/myanmar-blames-bangladesh-delayed-rohingya-return/
Abul Naser, a 42-year-old Rohingya refugee living near
the border, described seeing “flames and clouds of smoke.”
“They are trying to send us a message, they are trying to
scare us so that we never go back,” he told AFP, referring to Myanmar forces.
Footage of the blaze quickly spread among Rohingya
refugees in Bangladesh through social media, with many quick to blame Myanmar’s
security forces.
“The fire is designed to destroy the last remaining
traces of Rohingya homes so that none of us can return to our villages,”
Rafique bin Habib, an activist from the persecuted Muslim minority, told AFP.
He said without homes, those Rohingya returned under the
controversial repatriation agreement would be denied access to their ancestral
lands and forced to live in displacement camps.
Displaced Rohingya inside Bangladesh have described homes
being razed by Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist mobs during a campaign of violence
the UN has likened to ethnic cleansing.
Nearly 690,000 Rohingya have escaped Rakhine state over
the border into Bangladesh since August in the wake of a military-led campaign
in Rakhine state against the ethnic minority.