None will be allowed to cross the border: Asaduzzman

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Thursday said no one will be allowed to enter into Bangladesh border.

“Arakan Army, Myanmar Border Guard Force (BGP), separatists — whoever it is, none will be allowed to cross the border. Our message is clear,” the minister said while addressing the press briefing after inspecting the training parade at the parade ground of ‘Border Guard Training Center and College’ at Baitul Izzat in Satkania of Chattogram.

The programme was organised at the conclusion of the training of the 98th recruit batch of the new soldiers of BGB.

“We are not inviting anyone. Let them fight within their territory, but we will not allow them to enter into our land. What is happening there is their own business. They have faced such crisis in different times. We have heard that Myanmar has engaged in a war with the Arakan Army. They (Myanmar) have nothing to do with our country in this incident,” he added.

He said that BGB is working round the clock to ensure that none can enter into our country by crossing the border.

Asaduzzaman said that BGB has been protecting the border area very competently.

So that the additional manpower will monitor the BGB posts on the border all the time.

The minister said that proper instructions have been given to the BGB, so that Myanmar Border Guard Force (BGP) or any other forces are not enter into our borders.

Akhtar Hossain, senior secretary of the public security division and BGB Director General Major General Sakil Ahmed, among others, attended the function.

The Business Post correspondent in Cox’s Bazar quoting locals and border security officials reported, the Arakan Army, a pro-independence armed group, has been fighting and exchanging gunfire with Myanmar’s security forces for weeks in the Walidong Hills of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, across the border in Naikhongchari.

The sound of erratic gunfire can be heard from as far away as the upazila’s Tumbru Bazar area.

According to local sources, shootings in Myanmar’s Rakhine state have been a common occurrence now. People have been living under a threat ever since mortar shells have been falling inside Bangladesh’s border.

Bangladesh had strongly protested the tension at the border by summoning the ambassador of Myanmar to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, following incidents of mortar shells fired from a helicopter on August 28, September 3 and 16.