Bangladesh to lodge complaint with UN over Myanmar mortar shelling if diplomacy fails: Home minister
NEWS DESK
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the government is trying to resolve the issues with Myanmar 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’ questions after attending a programme at Ahsania Mission in the capital on Saturday.
He said the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry had warned them (Myanmar) several times but they didn’t keep their promise. “We have lodged a strong protest over the casualties from Friday’s mortar shelling by Myanmar at the Tombru border,” he added.
“Myanmar’s internal conflicts should remain within its borders, but their forces are crossing the 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 alert to prevent the 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, also known as the camp that is closest to the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in No Man’s Land.
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.
So far, twelve mortar shells have been fired by the Myanmar army on Bangladesh territory.
