Sounds of gunshots in Rakhine state are being heard amid the Rohingya persecution by security forces in Myanmar.
On Friday, at least 89 people including a dozen security force members were killed as Rohingya insurgents reportedly besieged border posts in troubled Rakhine state, prompting the army to launch a new crackdown on the Rohingyas.
While visiting Myanmar border areas on Monday, this correspondent heard the sound of firing and people’s scream coming from the Rakhine state.
Around 20,000 Rohingyas have gathered on different points of Bangladesh-Myanmar border since Friday.
Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh said security forces had been picking up innocent youths suspecting them the members of insurgent groups.
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They are also killing the Muslim people and setting fires to the villages in Rakhine state, the Rohingya said.
Imam Hossain, a resident of Chakmakata village of Rakhine state’s Dhekibonia, told Dhaka Tribune over phone that an army team picked up three youths of the villages on Sunday and later dumped them in a nearby bush in unconscious state.
Dhekibonia’s Largapara resident Nurul Absar said the army men conducted raids in the village on Sunday and they bombarded and torched the houses that they found empty.
The security forces are randomly picking up people from the state, he added.
Moulvi Shafi Ullah, who was fleeing to Bangladesh through Ukhia’s Palangkhali Anjumanpara border, told the Dhaka Tribune that Myanmar army had been carrying out brutal tortures on Rohingyas especially on youths for last two days.
Ukhia’s Palangkhali Union Parishad acting chairman Mojaffar Ahmed said around a thousand panic-stricken Rohingyas had gathered at the banks of Naf River.
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After visiting the border points in Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari upazila, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Director General on Sunday said they would not allow anyone from Myanmar to intrude into Bangladesh.
“We will give befitting reply if anyone tries to cross the zero point,” he said.
“We are on high alert. We will not allow anyone from Myanmar to intrude into Bangladesh,
Earlier, over 70,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh in the aftermath of the October 9, 2016 attacks on security posts, joining as many as 500,000 estimated refugees who have come to Bangladesh during decades of persecution in their motherland.