DE Online Desk
At least 58 soldiers of Myanmar’s paramilitary Border Guard Police (BGP) on Sunday took refuge in Bangladesh fleeing their posts amid reports of heavy gunfights between the government troops and the rebels in the junta-run country.
“Fifty eight BGP personnel took shelter in Bangladesh throughout the day since the predawn hours. Fourteen of them crossed the border with bullet wounds and are being treated at different hospitals including health facilities in Rohingya camps,” said an official familiar with the development.
He added the paramilitary soldiers were kept under their counterpart Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) custody in Cox’s Bazar while the weapons they carried with them were deposited in BGB cache.
The official said many of the soldiers came to Bangladesh territory in combat uniform and weapons while others were in their plainclothes leaving as well their arms back home.
BSS obtained the photograph of the last BGP solider who crossed the border in barefoot and plainclothes carrying his rifle while the 14 others were in their combat uniform. “The BGB informed the development to their Myanmar counterparts,” said the official, preferring anonymity. Dhaka, meanwhile, expressed concerns as the skirmishes in its borders with Myanmar was affecting Bangladesh frontlines with Road Transport Minister and Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader seeking Chinese intervention to deescalate the conflict in view of Beijing’s close contacts with Burmese authorities. “The internal war is their (Myanmar’s) domestic concern. But when the sound of gunfights is heard in the border, naturally it creates panic in public mind. We, therefore, expected Beijing’s intervention,” Quader told newsmen after his meeting with the Chinese envoy.
58 Myanmar border guards take refuge in Bangladesh
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