Anadolu Agency Staff
18 January 2023•Update: 18 January 2023
DHAKA, Bangladesh
At least one person reportedly belonging to a separatist group was killed and several others were injured in an hours-long gun battle between two armed militant forces inside Myanmar along the border with Bangladesh on Wednesday, according to local sources.
The fighting took place near the no-man’s land at Ghumdhum-Tumbru frontline in Bangladesh’s southeastern border district of Bandarban on Wednesday.
Nearly 5,000 persecuted Rohingya refugees live in makeshift tents in this no-man’s land for nearly six years after fleeing a brutal military crackdown in their home country of Myanmar’s Rakhine state in August 2017.
“A heavy gun battle between Myanmar’s militant groups has been going on since early Wednesday morning. Many local people living near the border have been shifted to safer places,” Md. Jahangir Aziz, chairman of Ghumdhum Union Council in Bandarban told Anadolu.
He added that dozens of Rohingya tents have also been burned down.
Citing local sources, Aziz added that the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) are reportedly locked in the fighting.
Meanwhile, a Rohingya living in a camp in no-man’s land, requesting anonymity, shared some photos and videos showing burning tents. He claimed that at least two separatist fighters have been killed.
However, these claims have not been verified officially.
Citing Bandarban district Deputy Commissioner Yasmin Parvin Tibriji, the local Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported that the firing took place between Myanmar's separatist groups at the zero line on the Ghumdhum-Tumbru border.
On Nov. 4, 2022, two Rohingya refugees were killed and five others injured after several mortar shells reportedly fired by the Myanmar army fell near the Rohingya camps at the no-man’s land.
Myanmar’s military fighter jets also crossed into Bangladesh’s airspace many times in the past targeting armed separatists.
