C T Online Desk: Dhaka on Sunday once again summoned the Myanmar ambassador to Bangladesh to protest at the firing of mortar shells into Bangladesh territory for the second time in a week.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned ambassador Aung Kyaw Moe and lodged the protest at the firing of two mortar shells from Myanmar that landed in Naikhyangchari upazila of the bordering hill district of Bandarban on Saturday.
‘The Myanmar ambassador was summoned. We have conveyed our concerns to him,’ foreign minister AK Abdul Momen said at his ministry.
He said that the Myanmar envoy had informed them that these were stray incidents as there were clashes inside their country.
‘We are informed that they did not have any motive behind those incidents, nor are they making any provocations,’ the foreign minister told reporters.
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He said that the Border Guard Bangladesh and other security apparatus were alerted against the fear that persecuted Myanmar citizens might try to enter Bangladesh.
Myanmar military aircraft fired at least two mortar shells into Bangladesh on Saturday morning just five days after the country’s envoy in Dhaka was summoned and handed over a protest note over a similar incident on August 28.
On August 21, Dhaka also summoned the Myanmar ambassador to protest at a similar incident that took place on August 20, according to officials.
The fresh incident was reported to have occurred at about 9:30am at Tamru in Ghumdhum area of Naikhyangchhari upazila in the hill district of Bandarban, some six kilometres from the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, according to Bandarban police and civil administration officials.
Responding to a question, Momen, however, expressed hope that these would not affect the process of Rohingay repatriation from Bangladesh, already hosting over 1.1 million forcibly displaced people from Myanmar.
Earlier on the day, the foreign ministry director general for Myanmar wing, Miah Md Mainul Kabir, summoned the Myanmar envoy and handed over a note verbale in protest at the Saturday’s incident.
There were no casualties from the shells, but the government officials said that people in Tumbru Uttar Para area under Naikhyangchari along the border with Myanmar were panicky.
