DHAKA: Bangladesh issued a “high alert” along its Myanmar border after detaining 53 members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militant group for crossing into its territory, Dhaka paramilitary officials said Monday.
At least two people have been injured since Sunday, including a 12-year-old girl who suffered a gunshot, in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, home to more than a million Rohingya refugees.
“We are on high alert and have already detained 53 people for trespassing,” Colonel Moinuddin Ahmed of paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) told AFP.
Local witnesses said ARSA fighters were detained on Sunday after crossing into Bangladeshi territory. “One of them (detained persons) has been sent to hospital while the rest are in police custody (and) legal procedures are ongoing,” Saiful Islam from Teknaf police station told AFP.