Fleeing Rohingya Muslims sent back by Dhaka

By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka

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.