bdnews24.com :
As the crackdown continues in Rakhine, the fleeing Rohingya people from Myanmar are pouring into Bangladesh border and throwing up thousands of shanties in hilly swathes of Cox’s Bazar.
Residents of Balukhali said thick smoke rose from the other side of the border throughout the day.
Rohingya refugees said their villages were being burnt in Myanmar.
At least 400 people, including 13 members of the security forces and 14 civilians, have died since attacks on police posts and an army base in Rakhine on August 25, Myanmar authorities said.
Now the blasts, gunfire and smoke indicate that the violence has not ceased yet.
According to the UN, over 123,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh in 12 days until Monday after the violence flared up. However, the locals believe the number will be several times the UN estimation.
The residents of Cox’s Bazar said Border Guard Bangladesh or BGB prevented the Rohingyas from crossing the border for the first few days, but later opened it ‘unofficially.
The border guards made no comments on sending back any refugees in past two days.
The new refugees have been building shanties on a five square kilometre hilly area from Kutupalong to Thaingkhali in Ukhia after failing to get any space at refugee camps in Kutupalong and Balukhali of Ukhia, and Leda and Shaplapur of Teknaf since Thursday.
They are also building thousands of shanties with bamboos and polythene sheets at Hoaikyong in Teknaf after cleaning bushes on hills.
At Roikhyang in Hoaikyong, more than 50,000 new refugees have taken shelter, locals said.
BGB is ‘controlling’ the settlement of Rohingyas in the area.
Teknaf BGB-2 Battalion Commander Lt Col SM Ariful Islam said, “Rohingyas are coming somehow. So we are trying to control them by putting them in one place. They are also getting humanitarian aid. It will be easier to take the next step after the government makes a decision.”
He said volunteers from the Rohingya people were assigned and the BGB set up a medical camp there.
Amid this new influx of refugees, explosions rocked an area on the Myanmar side of the border near Tumbru Bazar in Naikkhyanchharhi in the afternoon, accompanied by the sound of gunfire and thick black smoke. A woman, named Fatema Begum, was injured in the blasts and taken to Kutupalong refugee camp hospital by a Red Crescent ambulance. She lost both her legs.
BGB officials suspect the blasts were of land mines.
As the crackdown continues in Rakhine, the fleeing Rohingya people from Myanmar are pouring into Bangladesh border and throwing up thousands of shanties in hilly swathes of Cox’s Bazar.
Residents of Balukhali said thick smoke rose from the other side of the border throughout the day.
Rohingya refugees said their villages were being burnt in Myanmar.
At least 400 people, including 13 members of the security forces and 14 civilians, have died since attacks on police posts and an army base in Rakhine on August 25, Myanmar authorities said.
Now the blasts, gunfire and smoke indicate that the violence has not ceased yet.
According to the UN, over 123,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh in 12 days until Monday after the violence flared up. However, the locals believe the number will be several times the UN estimation.
The residents of Cox’s Bazar said Border Guard Bangladesh or BGB prevented the Rohingyas from crossing the border for the first few days, but later opened it ‘unofficially.
The border guards made no comments on sending back any refugees in past two days.
The new refugees have been building shanties on a five square kilometre hilly area from Kutupalong to Thaingkhali in Ukhia after failing to get any space at refugee camps in Kutupalong and Balukhali of Ukhia, and Leda and Shaplapur of Teknaf since Thursday.
They are also building thousands of shanties with bamboos and polythene sheets at Hoaikyong in Teknaf after cleaning bushes on hills.
At Roikhyang in Hoaikyong, more than 50,000 new refugees have taken shelter, locals said.
BGB is ‘controlling’ the settlement of Rohingyas in the area.
Teknaf BGB-2 Battalion Commander Lt Col SM Ariful Islam said, “Rohingyas are coming somehow. So we are trying to control them by putting them in one place. They are also getting humanitarian aid. It will be easier to take the next step after the government makes a decision.”
He said volunteers from the Rohingya people were assigned and the BGB set up a medical camp there.
Amid this new influx of refugees, explosions rocked an area on the Myanmar side of the border near Tumbru Bazar in Naikkhyanchharhi in the afternoon, accompanied by the sound of gunfire and thick black smoke. A woman, named Fatema Begum, was injured in the blasts and taken to Kutupalong refugee camp hospital by a Red Crescent ambulance. She lost both her legs.
BGB officials suspect the blasts were of land mines.
