Hundreds being tossed across Bangladesh-Myanmar border: Report

Dhaka, Oct 16 : Bangladesh and Myanmar are tossing hundreds of Muslim tribal Rohingya families across their border, where they are reinforcing troops for the past one week, a media report said.

Alleging that Myanmar border force Nasaka is pushing out the Rohingyas, Bangladesh says it has adopted the policy of pushing them back. But it finds that the same people are being sent back again.

Dhaka says Yangon is preparing for "an all-out armed conflict" and has moved three more battalions Thursday.

A convoy carrying cannons, artillery guns and other armaments from Comilla and Chittagong were moved to the border.

The trouble began with Myanmar erecting barbed wire fence despite Bangladesh's objections and reinforcing troops to support that operation.

"Push-ins and push-backs are going on across the border with Myanmar amid tensions following mobilization of a huge number of Myanmarese troops along the border for erecting barbed wire fence," The Daily Star newspaper reported from Bandarban, a border area in Chittagong Hill Tracts.

The two share a 300 km border that remains volatile due to what Dhaka alleges to be attempts by Nasaka to push out the Rohingyas, most of them inhabiting the western flank of the Arakan ranges. The Rohingyas are opposing the military junta ruling Yangon.

This has been a recurring phenomenon in the last three decades. Bangladesh hosts a large population of refugees in its southeastern region.

The newspaper quoted unnamed Bangladeshi intelligence sources as saying that Nasaka gathered about 10,000 Rohingyas at several border points opposite Naikhongchhari last week in a bid to push them into the Bangladesh territory.

Local people said even after receiving the Rohingyas from the Bangladesh authorities, Nasaka forced them again to enter the country using other border areas of the hill district.