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Bangladesh, Myanmar forces trade fire as tensions rise along border

30 May 2014 17:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Bangladesh and Myanmar forces traded gunfire along their border on Friday evening for nearly one hour, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

According to a Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) source, gun fight between the two sides began at about 4.00 p.m. local time and continued for nearly one hour.

Paramilitary soldiers have exchanged fires with their Myanmar counterparts at Naikhangchharhi area under the country's southeastern Bandarban district, some 316 km away of capital Dhaka.

No casualties have so far been reported.

Quoting BGB Director General Major Gen. Aziz Ahmed, leading local news agency bdnews24.com reported that the firing had stopped.

Tension has been building up along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border since Wednesday night when Myanmar's Border Guard Police ( BGP) reportedly opened fire at BGB patrol teams at a Rohingya refugee camp near the border.

After the incident, a BGB soldier was reported missing. BGB officials said BGP had been silent about the matter. Later the issue was taken to the foreign ministry.

Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thursday summoned Myanmar's ambassador in Dhaka to protest, after which BGP said they had a dead body.

The BGB director general said BGP had not named the dead person.

"We asked them to show us the body, because we have a man missing," the BGB Director General Ahmed was quoted by local media as saying on Friday.

He said the viewing was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. local time Friday, but BGP began firing at that time and BGB fired back.

Leading English newspaper The Daily Star reported Friday that BGB has deployed additional forces along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Nykhangchhari of Bandarban as tension mounted in the area, after Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) fired on a BGB patrol team and detained one of its members on Wednesday.

Talking to the Myanmar ambassador, Senior Bangladesh Foreign Ministry official Mustafa Kamal demanded a thorough investigation into the matter to prevent recurrence of such incident.

The Myanmar ambassador reportedly assured that the matter would be duly conveyed to the authorities concerned in Myanmar immediately and that he would get back to the Bangladesh side as soon as he heard from them.

The Bangladesh embassy in Myanmar also demanded from the Myanmar foreign ministry an immediate investigation into the matter and release of the captive BGB member.