A Cox’s Bazar court on Monday sanctioned a three-day remand for 22 of 23 Rohingyas who were arrested with firearms while entering Bangladesh amid the fighting between the Myanmar security personnel and rebel Arakan Army (AA) in the junta-run country.

Besides, an examination centre, located along the Ghumdhum border under Naikhongchhari upazila in Bandarban district, designated for holding the SSC examination has been changed on security grounds.

Sources said police produced  the arrested Rohingyas before the court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Srigyan Tanchayanga.

The court granted a three-day remand for 22 of the 23 arrestees. The court however did not sanction remand for arrestee Md Sadek as he fell sick after arrest, said the case Investigation Officer (IO) Inspector Nasir Uddin Majumder of Ukhiya police station. 

The Rohingyas entered Bangladesh with firearms through different areas of Ukhiya on 6 February. Locals detained them and handed them over to police.

A Boarder Guard Bangladesh (BGB) member filed a case accusing the arrestees and they were produced before a Cox’s Bazar court with remand prayer for 10 days on Saturday.

All the arrestees were registered with the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh and members of a Rohingya terrorist group, said sources concerned.

On the other hand, students of the Ghumdhum High School centre will now sit for the examination at 1 No Uttar Ghumdhum Government Primary School, said Chattogram Education Board Examination Controller Professor AMM Mujibur Rahman.

Students of the vocational group of the changed centre will sit at 2 No Uttar Ghumdhum Government Primary School, he said.

“A team of the board visited the Ghumdhum High School centre and we have changed the venue as per the instruction of the ministry,” said the controller.

The new centres will accommodate 461 examinees of the Ghumdhum High School centre, said sources.

Meanwhile, sounds of gunshots and mortar shell explosions in Myanmar were heard at intervals through different frontlines under Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar on Monday.

Dhaka hopeful to send back Myanmar security forces soon

The government has taken all-out diplomatic efforts to send back the members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) and army who had fled to Bangladesh recently to escape the fighting between the Myanmar army and the rebel AA.

Diplomatic sources said the Myanmar side has agreed to take back its troops as soon as possible but no specific date is yet to be finalised for the return of over 300 troops on the first of February.

They said both Dhaka and Naypyidaw have reached a consensus that the Myanmar troops will be sent back soon and the two sides are working on this matter. Dhaka considers sending back Myanmar’s border guards and army as a priority issue.

Local sources said it was not just the members of Myanmar’s BGP and army who had fled to Bangladesh, there were some of their family members, too.

Foreign ministry officials said over one 100 Myanmar nationals entered India and Myanmar took them back recently.

Foreign ministry sources said Myanmar has officially offered to take them back through the waterways of the Naf. But Bangladesh wants to send them back to Myanmar through alternative routes as a fierce fight is going on between the two sides in the Rakhine state.

The diplomatic sources said Bangladesh seeks to make an alternative proposal to the neighbouring country to send back its citizens by air instead of river route.

The Bangladesh foreign ministry recently summoned Myanmar Ambassador Aung Kyaw Moe and handed over a strongly worded protest note and categorically said that Bangladesh will not accept any more displaced persons from the Rakhine state.

Bangladesh shares a 271-kilometre border with Myanmar and hosts more than 1.2 million forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals, known as Rohingyas, many of whom fled from Myanmar starting in August 2017 when its military launched a brutal “clearance operation” against them following attacks by an insurgent group.

The growing presence of Myanmar nationals is creating multiple problems in Bangladesh on security, climate and illegal drugs fronts.

The scale and duration of the latest crisis in Myanmar, however, far exceeds previous scenarios. In 1979 and 1992, some quarter-million Rohingya refugees were repatriated within a year of arrival.

Since 2017, Dhaka’s diplomatic efforts have been stalled by the absence of safety guarantees in Myanmar and denials of their citizenship, while broad international condemnation of Myanmar’s military as perpetrators of genocide has failed to soften the junta’s stance.

Even Bangladesh’s efforts to have China broker a deal with the Tatmadaw have yet to produce results.