Again yesterday, explosions from Myanmar’s Rakhine state across the border rattled Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazar.
Our source adds that the battle between the rebel Arakan Army and the Myanmar regime has left the people of the upazila living near the Naf river, which flows between the two nations, worried for their safety.
According to Teknaf upazila parishad chairman Nurul Alam, people are feeling more uneasy because the explosions are getting louder. Teknaf municipality region produced thick smoke yesterday, but it was not evident today, he said.
In Maungdaw Township and its environs, across from Teknaf, he added, fighting is ongoing between the Arakan Army and junta forces.
Sources at Border Guard Bangladesh state that the border guards are still watchful in the border regions.
The Irrawaddy, a news website started by Myanmar exiles residing in Thailand, said on Sunday that the Arakan Army had taken control of a border guard headquarters in northern Maungdaw Township on Friday and had now moved inside the town.
According to the news source, on Friday and Saturday the dictatorship was repeatedly attacking the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Pauktaw with air and artillery strikes after several junta soldiers fled to Bangladesh.
During the continuing fighting between the insurgent Arakan Army and the junta troops, 128 additional armed Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) men sought sanctuary in Teknaf via the Naf river on Saturday and Sunday.
Beginning in February, junta forces and AA stepped up their fighting at the Ghumdhum border in Naikhonchhari upazila of Bandarban.The rebel group’s attacks were so fierce that the junta forces had to retreat and many of them escaped to Bangladesh. Fighting is still going on in the Rohingya-populated regions of Rakhine State that the AA has taken over along the Bangladesh border.
