Firing continues intermittently on Myanmar border

Firing has been continuing intermittently since Thursday morning from Walidong hill inside Myanmar territory opposite to the Bangladesh border at Ghumdhum area in Bandarban's Naikhongchhari.

Around 12 to 15 artillery and mortar shells were fired till 11:00 am. However, no fighter jets or helicopters of the Myanmar army were seen circling in the sky as of 12:30pm on Thursday.

The Myanmar military has been fighting a fierce battle with the pro-independent Arakan Army (AA) in this area for a month.

Naikhongchhari Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Salma Ferdous told Prothom Alo that people inside Bangladesh territory had heard the noise of shelling, leaving them panicked. However, the BGB members were put on maximum alert on the border.

Union Parishad member of 2 no ward of Ghumdhum union Mohammad Buttu told Prothom Alo that bullets from heavy weapons and mortar shells were fired intermittently from Walidong hill from 8:00am to 11:00am.

Amidst the tension, however, the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) has continued their regular food assistance to the refugees, he added.

Myanmar military and Arakan Army have been fighting in the country’s Kha Maung Seik hill, some 1.5 kilometre north of Tombru bazar.

The territory between Konarpara of Tombru Bazar and Kha Maung Seik hill is no mans’ land and more than 4,200 people of 621 Rohingya families have been living there for five years after they were driven out from Rakhine and they are frightened over the ground battle as well shells, mortar and bombs fired from the sky.

There are Rohingya camps on zero line at the foot of Kha Mong Seik hill. Dill Mohammad is chairman of the managing committee of the camp. He is from Medi Para of Rakhine state and had been in Myanmar’s Border Guard Police for 10 years.

Dil Mohammad told Prothom Alo that the noise of shelling from the hill behind the refugee camp was heard on Thursday around 8:00am.

Around 12 to 15 mortar shells and artillery were fired intermittently till around 11:30 am from the BGP outpost, aiming at Kha Mong Shek hill. But no fighter jets and helicopters of the Myanmar army were seen in the sky, he added.

Earlier, Myanmar launched airstrikes along the Bangladesh border after the Arakan Army (AA) seized a police outpost in Maungdaw Township in northern Rakhine State, according to news site The Irrawaddy.

On 31 August, the AA took over the outpost, killing 19 police officers and seizing firearms, ammunition and other equipment.