Bangladesh, Burma exchange fire

Dhaka: Tensions escalated afresh along the Bangladesh-Burma frontier as border forces of the two countries traded gunfire for hours sparked off by the killing of a Bangladeshi guard on patrol, officials said here on Saturday.

“The two border forces mobilised further on the border after they exchanged gunshots for several hours late yesterday,” a local journalist said.
He added that residents of at least eight frontier villages were evacuated to safety from near the zero line while an alert was issued for the people along the border though no fresh gunshots were exchanged on Saturday.

Border Guards Bangladesh chief Major General Aziz Ahmed told the media that Burma’s Border Guard Police (BGP) opened fire afresh on the Bangladeshi frontier troops after asking them to come to a certain location to take back a body, believed to of slain BGB soldier Mizanur Rahman.

“Since morning (on Friday) Burma troops (through common sources) had been giving us several locations on the borders to handover the body and our troops followed,” he said.

But, he said, when the BGB members went to a certain point, instead of handing back the body, the Burma forces suddenly opened fire forcing the “the BGB members to fire back in self-defence”.

BGB officials at Bandarban frontier said no fresh casualty was caused but unconfirmed reports said two more BGB soldiers went missing.