Arakan News Agency
An official source from the Bangladeshi authorities said Friday that itpushed back a boat carrying 31 Rohingya refugees, including those who fled Myanmar after the renewed of the military offensive against them in Arakan province.
According to local and Bangladeshi media, the Bangladesh Coast Guard discovered a boat on the Naf River trying to enter the Cox’s Bazar area early in the morning on Friday. A patrol intercepted the boat and arrested one of the refugees.
The wave of escapees followed by the renewed of the military campaign against the Rohingya in Myanmar, where at least 500 Rohingya villagers have fled their villages in Arakan province and entered Bangladesh.
Coast Guard spokesman Fakhruddin said the fugitives, including women and children, said they were victims of violence in Myanmar. “We found 18 wounded men, nine women and four children. But we have to pushed them back. ”
Fakhruddin confirmed that the authorities had beefed up their forces on the Naf River in anticipation of the Rohingya exit from Arakan after a new army battalion arrived in Myanmar and renewed a military campaign against them in the villages bordering Bangladesh, prompting the Rohingya to try to come to Bangladesh.
Dhaka estimates that nearly 400,000 Rohingya refugees live in miserable refugee camps and temporary settlements in Cox-bazar, which lies on the border of Arakan State.
Their numbers ballooned in October when more than 70,000 Rohingya villagers began to flee to Bangladesh after systematic rapes, killings and arson by Myanmar soldiers.
