Myanmar border police flee to Bangladesh after Arakan Army attack

Dozens of Myanmar junta border police in northern Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township fled an offensive by the Arakan Army (AA) on Sunday, crossing into neighbouring Bangladesh, according to the ethnic armed organisation and regional media. The AA attacked two outposts along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border line in Taungpyo village, seizing one, Taungpyo Letyar, at 6pm, and then continuing the assault on the second post, Taungpyo Letwei. The fleeing troops—many in plainclothes—were captured in a video shared on social media by a local media outlet in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh as they fled the Taungpyo Letyar site through a cornfield while gunshots rang out. Some appeared to be injured and had difficulty walking. The man filming asked who the troops were, and one answered, “Myanmar police” in English. Members of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), a military unit responsible for border security in the country, disarmed the 58 junta troops, who had reportedly taken refuge in a school. The country’s home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told journalists over the weekend that the police would be sent back. “They are now in the custody of the BGB and the process is underway to send them back to Myanmar through the foreign ministry, but none should come here,” he said, according to the Dhaka Tribune. The media outlet reported that several schools had been closed in the border area due to mortar shelling on the Myanmar side, and at least two locals in Bangladesh suffered gunshot wounds. Some 3,000 people sought refuge in safer areas. The AA said there were many casualties on the junta’s side during the fight for Taungpyo Letyar, as well as some of their own troops, but did not provide exact numbers. While soldiers fleeing across the fenced border with Bangladesh remains unusual, a total of 635 Myanmar troops stationed in Rakhine State and southern Chin State are believed to have crossed India’s border during episodes of fighting with the AA in recent months. The Indian air force airlifted more than 100 Myanmar army soldiers back to the military from different locations in Mizoram at least three times in November. Others have been repatriated by the Myanmar military. A plane sent on such a mission to Mizoram from Mandalay Region on January 23 crashed after veering off a runway upon arrival, injuring more than half of the 14 crew members. It remains unclear whether the soldiers who have entered India have done so accidentally, since large portions of the border are unmarked, or if they went there voluntarily to contact their commanders in order to return home, or if they intended to defect. In mid-November, the AA launched an intensified offensive against the junta in Rakhine State in an attempt to drive the military out of the region.

Myanmar border police flee to Bangladesh after Arakan Army attack

Nearly 60 junta troops take refuge in Bangladesh as the home minister announces they will be repatriated

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