Photo AFP
By Mizan Rahman (Dhaka)
August 28, 2013
Bangladesh coastguards
pushed back 11 Rohingyas to Myanmar early yesterday after they were held trying
to cross into Bangladeshi waters in Teknaf sub-district of southeastern Cox’s
Bazar district.
Coastguard sources said a
patrol team from the Teknaf Station detained the 11 Myanmar nationals as they
were trying to enter Bangladesh in a small wooden boat at Niting around 9pm on
Tuesday.
The detainees were Nur
Alam, 20, Hafez Ahmed, 22, Ahsan, 15, Labdhu, 20, Osman, 22, Abdul Alim, 17,
Jonayed, 19, Rashid Ahmed, Ruma Begum, 17, Hamida Begum, 16, and Rahima Khatun,
15.
Following interrogation,
the arrested were pushed back into Myanmar around 3am yesterday.
Authorities said they could
not provide shelter to the Myanmar Muslims, as those already given refuge have
triggered social and economic problems.
Officials in Cox’s Bazar
yesterday attributed the fresh influx to hundreds of Muslims in Myanmar
becoming homeless after Buddhists torched their homes and shops in Sagaing
region of the violence-wracked country.
Local officials claim more
than 300 people are currently sheltering at a school after Buddhist mobs
torched their homes two days ago.
Last Saturday around a
thousand anti-Muslim rioters rampaged through villages in the northwestern town
of Kanbalu in the central region of Sagaing.
The mobs set fire to Muslim
properties and attacked rescue vehicles.
Sources say dozens of
houses and shops were left charred.
This is the fourth
anti-Muslim riot to break out in central and northern Myanmar this year.
Comments