TUMBRU: At least two people were killed in Bangladesh on Monday after mortar shells fired from Myanmar during clashes there landed across the border, as terrified residents reported heavy fighting and medics treated several with gunshot wounds.

Parts of Myanmar near the 270-kilometre border with Bangladesh have seen frequent clashes since November, when rebel Arakan Army fighters ended a ceasefire that had largely held since a 2021 coup.

Bangladeshi villagers living close to the border said they were fearful of the fighting, with aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) saying they had treated 17 people wounded in the clashes on Sunday “following fighting at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border”.

“All the patients had gunshot wounds”, MSF said on Monday. “Two were in life-threatening condition, and five were seriously injured.” Local police chief Abdul Mannan said a Bangladeshi woman, named as 48-year-old Hosne Ara, and an unnamed ethnic Rohingya man had been killed on Monday afternoon.

Terrified villagers shift children to safer areas after heavy fighting

“They were sitting in the kitchen... when a mortar hit the place,” Ara’s daughter-in-law said, too distraught to give her name.

“She was serving lunch to the Rohingya man who was hired by the family for farm work when they were hit.” Bangladeshi villagers living close to the border said fighting broke out across the frontier last week, with many sending their children away to relatives to escape the conflict.

‘Not our war’

“We are living in fear,” said Abdus Shukkur, 75, from Tumbru Bazaar, a Bangladeshi village near the border. “It’s not our war, but they are attacking our homes and people.” Hasina Banu, 50, returned to her home in Tumbru on Monday morning after four days, only to be caught up in fresh clashes. She reported having seen helicopter gunships firing near her.

“I didn’t eat anything since last night,” Banu said. “We are in constant fear for our life.”

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that border police officers from neighbouring Myanmar’s Rakhine state had “entered our territory for self-protection” ahead of advancing AA fighters.

A spokesman of the Border Guard Bangladesh, the country’s frontier forces, said Monday that “at least 95 border officers of Myanmar have crossed the border and taken shelter in Bangladeshi border posts”.

A Myanmar junta spokesman could not be reached for comment on the clashes.

Myanmar’s rebel Three Brotherhood Alliance, of which the AA is a member, said late Sunday that AA fighters were battling Myanmar border guard forces near Bangladesh.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2024