Landmine blast kills another Rohingya at border

 A Rohingya teen was killed on Friday in a landmine explosion near Rezo Amtoli in Naikhyangchhari upazila of hill district Bandarban.

At least two persons were killed in landmine blasts at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in last two months, officials said.

The landmine exploded along the international border between Bangladesh and Myanmar when the teenage boy and others went on night-time fishing, border guard and police officials said.

The victim, 13-year-old Mohammad Jaber, was a resident of Lambashiya camp at Kutupalong under Ukhiya police station of the district, said Delwar Hussain, a sub-inspector of the Ghumdhum police outpost in Naikhyangchhari upazila.

Border officials said that Jaber and others went to the bordering area for fishing at about 8:00pm and the explosion took place when they were returning home.

Jaber died on the spot, the officials said.

Naikhyangchhari police and BGB members recovered the body from the spot on Saturday morning and sent it to the Cox’s Bazar district hospital morgue for autopsy.

Lieutenant Colonel Ali Haidar Azad Ahmed, commanding officer of the 34 Border Guard Battalion at Naikhyangchhari, said that the Myanmar Border Guard Police and the Myanmar army planted landmines along the boundary line inside Myanmar in violation of international laws to prevent Rohingya from entering into Rakhine state.

 In April 2017, the Myanmar Police Force in a high-level border talks with the BGB in Dhaka agreed to remove the landmines and improvised explosive devices planted long ago along the zero-line on the international boundary as those were causing casualties.

A former Bangladesh military officer said that the landmines and IEDs were a longstanding problem along the border most of which were planted by 1994.

In 2018, Human Rights Watch called on the Myanmar government to immediately stop using antipersonnel landmines and join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

Source: https://www.newagebd.net/article/119916/landmine-blast-kills-another-rohingya-at-border