108 ROHINGYAS HELD FOR ILLEGAL ENTRY
Ukhiya, 19 Jumadil Awwal 1436/10 March 2015 (MINA) – Border Guard Bangladesh members intercepted a convoy of vehicles carrying hundreds of Rohingya intruders in Ukhiya of Cox’s Bazar and detained 108 of them.
A subedar of the BGB was shot by the alleged human traffickers during the incident. He was flown to the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka where doctors said he was out of danger.
The Rohingya detainees were later pushed back to Myanmar, according to BGB sources, The Dailystar quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Cox’s Bazar BGB Sector Commander Col Khaliquzzaman said the border guards were raiding places in the area to catch human traffickers and intruders.
Acting on a tip-off, a six-member BGB patrol team setup a roadblock at Balukhali Bridge in Panbazar on Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf highway around 9:00am and half an hour later they stopped a convoy of eight vehicles, locally known as Chander Gari.
Rohingyas were crammed in and on the vehicles.
But the team soon found itself surrounded by a crowd of suspected traffickers and locals, who tried to secure an escape for the convoy. This prompted the team to call in reinforcements, he said.
“A bullet came whizzing from the crowd and hit Subedar Fazlul Haque in the shoulder as soon as he reached the scene leading his six-man reinforcement team,” said Khaliquzzaman.
The BGB men then fired four shots in the air to disperse the crowd but by the time they had brought the situation under control around 11:ooam, six of the vehicles had left the scene with their passengers.
“We managed to detain 108 Rohingya intruders travelling in and on two of the jeeps,” said Khaliquzzaman.
He could not say how many Rohingyas escaped in the other vehicles.
The BGB arrested vehicle owner Shah Alamgir at the scene and later filed a case with Ukhiya Police Station accusing 30 people.
Lt Col Khandker Saiful Alam of BGB 17 Battalion said even though Rohingya intrusion was almost an everyday matter, the problem deteriorated over the last month and a half.
He alleged that a human trafficking gang was operating under the protection of Palonkhali Union Parishad Chairman Gafur Uddin, also a local BNP leader.
Gafur, however, claimed that he was being wrongfully implicated. “I was not even in Cox’s Bazar then. I am in no way involved in the incident,” he told The Daily Star.
According to Burmese Kaladan Press Network, the BGB pushed back over 700 Rohingyas in February.
On February 8, newspapers reported push back of 18 Rohingyas by the BGB.
Rohingyas do not have citizenship in Myanmar. Several rights bodies, the UN and the USA have repeatedly requested Myanmar to grant Rohingyas citizenship.
Bangladesh became a Rohingya destination in the wake of religious persecution in Arakan of Myanmar. An estimated one million Rohingyas live there.
According to the UNHCR, the UN wing for refugees, over two lakh Rohingya refugees, with only 30,000 documented, live in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh claims that there are over five lakh Rohingyas here.(T/P004/P3)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
