Fear gripped Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari locals as a bullet fired from the Myanmar side landed near a pillar at the border area on Saturday.
The bullet landed in Bangladesh at around 12:30pm near border no 49 and 50.
According to locals, mortar shells exploded inside Myanmar, near border pillars 49 and 50 at the outskirts of Dochhari Union, and a bullet landed inside Bangladesh’s territory.
Dhaka TribuneDochhari Union Chairman Muhammad Imran confirmed the matter.
He said that firing between Myanmar border force and separatist were heard in the UP and some local people claimed they saw bullets landing inside Bangladesh territory.
“We have asked 200 families living in the border areas to move to safe location. They are staying there now. No one was injured inside Bangladesh in the firing from across the border,” he said.
One Abdu Shukkur, a resident of Dochhari, said that he heard gunshots and saw two shells landing inside Bangladesh.
According to sources, a mortar shell landed just 300 meter away from a BGB camp in the area.
On October 10, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Director General Sakil Ahmed said the force was on high alert amid the tensions near the Myanmar border.
In order to prevent smuggling and illegal entry through the border, the BGB maintained strict surveillance, he said at a press briefing after visiting the border area in Naikhongchhari.
For the past two and a half months, gunfire has raged across the border in Myanmar between the Myanmar Army and Arakan Army (AA).
On September 18, Myanmar Ambassador to Bangladesh Aung Kyaw Moe was summoned by Dhaka for the fourth time over the recent incidents of firing along the borders.
Dhaka reiterated its “deep concern” over mortar shelling, indiscriminate aerial firing in the bordering areas, and air space violations.
On September 16, a 17-year-old-Rohingya boy named Mohammad Iqbal was killed and six others were injured as a mortar shell fired by the Myanmar army exploded at the Zero Point Rohingya Camp close to the international border in Tombru.
Another youth named Anganthowai Tanchangya was injured in a landmine explosion along Tombru border the same day.
Bangladesh has been repeatedly asking Myanmar to keep its fighting within the country’s border saying that Dhaka will lodge complaints with the UN in this regard if things escalate further.