The home ministry has asked bus and other transport owners in Cox’s Bazar to check passengers’ identity amid escalating concerns that they could fanned out across the country coming out of their makeshift refuge.
“We want to stop them fanning out from their shelters in Cox’s Bazar,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told BSS here on Monday.
He said all passengers would have to produce their photo identity cards, while availing in any kind of transport in the area as law enforcement agencies installed check points in different points.
Earlier, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque said that over 200 Rohingya refugees were detained from various parts of the country and returned to camps in Cox’s Bazar since the latest influx from Myanmar began in August 25.
On September 14, police detained 20 Rohingyas in Manikganj and sent back to the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.
According to the police headquarters official, on September 10 the police headquarters issued an order on superintendents of police (SPs) in three districts – Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban and Chittagong – additional inspector general of Special Branch (SB), director general (DG) of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan of Police (CMP) to take necessary measures to stop them from fanning out.
The directive asked particularly the three district police chiefs to intensify intelligence surveillance on road, water and airways so that the Rohingyas, fleeing from violence in Rakhine state in neighbouring Myanmar, cannot move out from Cox’s Bazar.
The police headquarters also asked the police personnel of the three districts to ensure particularly the safety of refugee women’s amid fears they could be exposed to sexual harassment or could be used for drug and weapon smuggling.
