Five fighter jets of the Myanmar security forces were seen circling in the sky at the Naikshyongchari border in Bandarban today on Saturday. Sometimes fighter jets and helicopters cross Bangladesh’s airspace and fire, local residents and public representatives said.
AKM Jahangir Aziz, chairman of Ghumdhum Union Parishad (UP) of Naikxyongchari, told that the mountainous ‘Kha Mong Sek’ area of Myanmar is just one and a half to two kilometers away from Tumbru Bazar border of Ghumdhum Union of Naikxyongchari upazila. For 23 days, fierce fighting between the independence-seeking Arakan Army and the Myanmar army has been going on in that area. Myanmar army increased the intensity of fighting today than other days. Helicopters fired, mortar shells and bombs for three hours continuously from 9:30 AM to 12:00 PM in the forest area near Pillar No. 40 of the border.
Jahangir Aziz also said that the part of Bangladesh where the mortars and bullets fired by the Myanmar security forces are coming, there is no population there. But Bangladeshis have more than 20 rubber plantations. The rubber workers left the garden in panic and moved towards the Tumbru market. No one is allowed to enter the border area. As the intensity of the war increases day by day, more than 4000 Rohingyas living in the shelter camps of Zero Line along with the residents of Apar Ghumdhum are living in fear.
Golam Mawla (45), a laborer from a rubber garden at Border Pillar No. 40, told that two mortar shells hit their garden around 9:30 am. At this time, two helicopters were circling in the sky and shooting down. Shots were being fired from the ground upwards. In the distant sky, four or five warplanes were circling and guarding the helicopter. Hundreds of bullets and mortar shells were fired from two helicopters till 12 noon. Due to the loud noise, the workers fled towards Tumbru market instead of staying in that area.
The area of Myanmar where the army and Arakan Army are fighting is called ‘Kha Mong Sek’ hill. One and a half kilometers away from that hill (to the north) is Tumbru Bazar of Bangladesh. From this market, helicopters, jet fighters hovering and firing can be seen in Myanmar. The area between the corner of Tumbru Bazar and the ‘Kha Mong Sek’ hill in Myanmar is a no man’s land. More than 4,200 Rohingyas from 621 families expelled from Rakhine state have been living here (zero line) for five years after building a shelter camp. Apart from the ground war, they are afraid of the shootings, mortar shells and bombs thrown from the sky. The mountain next to the cropland is in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Where the war is going on. On Thursday morning at Tumbru border of Ghumdhum union of Naikshyongchari upazila of hilly Bandarban.
Multiple sources in charge of police and border security said that on August 28, two mortar shells fired from Myanmar landed in Bangladesh. However, there were no casualties as they were unexploded. Army personnel later defused the shells. In the afternoon of this incident, Dhaka issued a strong protest by summoning Myanmar’s ambassador Aung Kyaw Moe to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But in the third phase, multiple mortar shells and bullets fired by Myanmar are still coming to Bangladesh territory. Rohingya refugee camp at the foot of the Kha Mong Sek mountain in Myanmar.
