Shafiul Alam, a resident of Ghumdhum’s Jalpaitoli, a once quiet village in the border district of Bandarban, is now counting his days wracked by a complex cocktail of human emotions. His life took an unexpected turn on February 5, as his mother lost her life when a stray mortar shell fired from Myanmar landed in their under-construction house, which also left his two children with shrapnel wounds on their feet, and took the life of a Rohingya construction worker. He is not even in a situation to grieve properly as he has to think about how to treat his children with little to no help. The children only survived as they were inside their home at the time, while their grandmother was serving lunch to the construction worker.   2 SSC exam centres along BD-Myanmar border relocated Bandarban's Deputy Commissioner Shah Mojahid Uddin and Superintendent of Police Saikat Shahin later paid a visit to the family. A mere donation of Tk 20,000 was offered as immediate assistance, but the bereaved family expressed dissatisfaction with the government's support process.  Their plea is clear: they seek international intervention to ensure justice and an end to their current situation of fearing for their lives every moment of the day. Shafiul is not alone, the repercussions of Myanmar's civil war extend beyond Shafiul's family. Thousands of bordering residents of the country are now passing each day fearing for their lives. Don’t want to share specific date but Myanmar security forces to go back soon: Hasan Mahmud In Tumbru and surrounding areas, at least 12 people have been shot and injured, their suffering further exacerbated by the lack of medical treatment and government support. The victims are now only pleading for assistance, to save their lives which reveals a bitter reality of the toll that geopolitical strife takes on ordinary lives. Unidentified man’s body found along Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Cox’s Bazar

Two people, including a woman, were killed in reported shelling on a house at Jolpaitoli under Ghumdum union of Naikhongchhari upazila in Bandarban district on Monday (February 05, 2024). One of the deceased was identified as Hosne Ara, 50, wife of Badsha Mia while the identity of the other could not be known immediately. Myanmar violence spillovers: 7 Educational Institutions shut in Bandarban Shafiqul Islam, Jolpaitoli Ward 1 member, said the explosion occurred around 2:30 pm inside Bangladesh and two people were found dead after the explosion. ASP (Lama circle, Bandarban district) Md Nurul Anwar said he heard about the deaths of two people but they are yet to identify them. 37 more Nasaka personnel take shelter in Bangladesh; total number now 95

A sense of panic has spread through the residents of Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari  upazila, after Myanmar air force helicopters engaged in bouts of heavy firing on their side of the Ghumdhum border on both Monday and Tuesday. Although no one has been hurt on Bangladesh soil, some stray gunfire did make into Bangladesh territory by pillars numbered 18, 31, 34, and 35 – all part of the border in Ghundhum. Stray bullets also made it into Bangladesh between pillar nos. 45 and 46 in Bandarban Sadar. Md Nurul Amin, a local Union Parishad member, said the Myanmar air force commenced this latest round of operations around 4pm on Monday, almost immediately after Major General Shakil Ahmed, DG of Border Guards Bangladesh, completed a trip to the region. The firing was said to continue for 15 hours straight on that occasion, till 7am today. After that, Mohd. Alam, member of Ward no.3 within Ghumdhum, said they had heard three more rounds of shelling from the air over an 8-hour period till 3pm on Tuesday. Besides, the witnesses had all been also hearing the sounds of firing taking place inside Myanmar territory, said the member. Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, has long been fighting to suppress a bloody insurgency in its bordering state of Rakhine, waged by an ethnic group calling itself the Arakan Army. In the last few months, the Myanmar army has been engaged in trying to bring about an endgame to the standoff, leading to a flare-up in the conflict that has increasingly spilled over into Bangladesh.   Read: Another Bangladeshi youth loses a leg in Myanmarese landmine explosion Meanwhile in Bandarban, local businessman Md Sarwar said he along with his family and neighbours are all feeling anxious about their own security, despite knowing that Myanmar is battling a different enemy. “You can never be sure what Myanmar are up to, or what their real intentions are,” said Sarwar, speaking words that everyone may be well-advised to heed.  Preferring anonymity, some BGB officials said they were beefing up security measures to tackle any untoward incident stemming from the Myanmar side. As the fighting in Rakhine has escalated, so has the scale and frequency of these incidents along the border. Since September 16, two Bangladeshi youths have lost limbs stepping on landmines laid by the Tatmadaw dangerously close to the international border. Earlier this month, a Rohingya teen named Omar Farook, resident of one of the refugee camps inside Bangladesh or occupying the No Man’s Land between two sovereign territories, was also killed in a landmine explosion. Last month another Rohingya known as Md Iqbal was killed, when Myanmar ‘mistakenly’ shelled the Zero Point Refugee Camp. That also resulted in a mini-exodus of refugees into Bangladesh.