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Photo: BD Military
Staff Correspondent, BDNews24
June 01, 2014
Myanmar has returned the body of a border guard, missing
since a border firing at Bandarban's Naikhangchharhi.
Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed, the head of Border Guards Bangladesh
(BGB), said the trooper missing since Wednesday was identified by a BGB team on
Saturday evening.
“He was identified as our Nayek Md Mizanur Rahman.”
The 10-strong team completed all formalities to bring the
body back at 6pm, he told reporters at BGB headquarters in Dhaka.
Earlier, Myanmar border police officer Tun Oo confirmed to
Irrawaddy, a Myanmar news portal that a BGB personnel had been killed by his
unit during the border skirmish.
“They told us last night that they would bring the body to
the 52 border pillar between 11:00 to 11:30 am today (Saturday). They set the
ground rule, saying ten of our men, led by a major, should meet ten of them,”
said the BGB chief.
But Myanmar’s border police did not bring the body at the
appointed hour on Saturday and “pressed for more negotiations” instead.
“Our team was allowed to cross the zero point a couple of
hours ago. They were taken to the body.”
The BGB team asked the men handing over the body about the
SMG and 120 rounds of ammunition Nayek Mizan was carrying.
“They said they were not with them at the moment, we have
told the authorities (Myanmar) about this.”
Maj Gen Aziz said a commander-level meeting would be held on
June 3 over this incident where the Myanmar side was expected to hand over
Nayek Mizan’s weapons.
Tension has been building along the Bangladesh-Myanmar
border since Wednesday night when Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) opened
fire at BGB patrol teams at a Rohingya refugee camp near the border.
Nayek Mizan was missing ever since the firing and BGB
officials said the BGP had been silent on the matter.
Later, the matter was taken by the foreign ministry, which
summoned Myanmar’s ambassador in Dhaka Myo Myint Than on Thursday to protest
the ‘illegal detention’ of the BGB personnel.
The BGP then said it had a body but did not confirm whether
it was that of the missing trooper.
But BGB troopers again exchanged fire with the BGP at
Bandarban's Naikhangchharhi for 45 minutes, starting around 4pm Friday.
“The viewing was scheduled for 3:30pm Friday, but the BGP
began firing at that time and the BGB fired back,” said Maj Gen Aziz.
Ambassador Myo Myint Than was again summoned on Saturday to
protest the unprovoked firing on Friday. He was handed a ‘note verbale’ and
asked to take immediate steps for the identification of the body that that BGP
had said was with them.
Meanwhile, Irrawaddy quoted Tun Oo, a police colonel in
Sittwe, Arakan State, who said: “One from the other side [Bangladesh] was
killed by our police force when a clash broke out on May 28,”
The Myanmar news portal also said police in Arakan State’s
Maungdaw Township told the Burmese media that the incident involved the
Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), a militant group that they alleged was
based in Bangladesh.
“The killed man was said to be a RSO member,” Irrawaddy
reported on Friday.
Myanmar’s RSO allegations
The BGB chief said Myanmar, in a recent flag meeting,
alleged that Bangladesh was ‘harbouring’ members of the RSO who were crossing
over to create trouble.
The RSO, formed around 1980, has been demanding Myanmar
citizenship rights for Rohingyas. The country's government identifies them as a
militant organisation.
“We told them very clearly that there was no such
organisation in Bangladesh and will never be.”
Maj Gen Aziz said he reiterated to the BGP the government’s
stand against letting anyone use Bangladesh’s soil to plan or launch attacks
against any sovereign state.
“We told them to give us information, if any, on where in
Bangladesh the RSO is located or has set up camps … We will drive them out
right away.”
He said the BGB, after the meeting, launched operations in
collaboration with the army but did not find any RSO bases inside Bangladesh.
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