Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said the government is trying to resolve the Myanmar issue peacefully and diplomatically but a complaint will be lodged with the United Nations regarding mortar shelling at the border if necessary.
The minister said this in response to journalists after attending a programme at Ahsania Mission in Dhaka today.
He said the Foreign Ministry has warned Myanmar again and again but they didn’t keep their promise. “We have lodged a strong protest against casualties from Myanmar’s mortar shelling on Friday at Tombru border,” he added.
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“Myanmar’s internal conflicts should remain within its border but their forces are entering the Bangladesh border time and again and injuring Bangladeshi nationals,” said Asaduzzaman.
He said Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) is continuously being contacted about this issue and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has remained strictly alert to prevent illegal entry of Rohingyas.
On Friday night, a 17-year-old-Rohingya boy named Mohammad Iqbal was killed and five others were injured as a mortar shell fired by the Myanmar army exploded at the Zero Point Rohingya Camp close to the international border in Tombru, Bandarban.
The deceased and injured were all residents of the Zero Point Rohingya Camp, known as the camp that is closest to the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in no man’s land.
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Four mortar shells landed in succession at the Rohingya camp around 8pm.
Earlier, an indigenous youth named Anganthowai Tanchangya was grievously injured in a landmine explosion along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban on Friday noon. Locals said it is the Myanmar army that has mined the area.
Twelve mortar shells have been fired by the Myanmar army into Bangladesh territory so far.