• More than 100 members of the Burmese Border Guard Police left their posts and crossed the Bangladeshi border to seek refuge from ethnic insurgent forces.
• Rebel groups, including the Arakan Army and its parent Three Brotherhood Alliance, have made significant advances against Burma’s military junta since joining forces last year.
• Burma has been under military rule since the ouster of democratically elected State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi three years ago.

More than 100 members of Burma’s border guard police have left their posts and taken refuge in Bangladesh. Escape from combat An official from Bangladesh’s border agency said on Monday between Burmese security forces and the ethnic minority army.

It is the first time Burmese forces are known to have fled to Bangladesh since a coalition of ethnic minority forces in Burma began operations against the military government late last year.

Border Guard Bangladesh spokesman Shariful Islam said Burmese forces entered Burma’s Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh, during clashes with the Arakan Army in the past two days.

1 dead as 131 Burmese migrants escape from Malaysian detention center

He said that 103 soldiers entered Bandarban district from Tumbro border.

“They have been disarmed and taken to safe places,” he said.

Military Government of Burma There was no immediate comment.

Also on Monday, Bangladeshi media said two people – a Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya refugee – were killed by shelling from Burma after a house in Bandarban was targeted.

Bangladesh Law Minister Aneesul Haque told Parliament that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the army and paramilitary border guards to exercise restraint in dealing with cross-border tensions.

Bangladesh’s United News Agency quoted him as saying, “Bangladesh is closely monitoring the situation and steps will be taken.”

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mehmood said on Monday that Burma’s Ambassador to Bangladesh U. Aung Kyaw Moe and Deputy Foreign Minister U. Lwin Oo told the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they would send their soldiers sheltering in Bangladesh. Will take it back.

The ministry also sent a “note verbale” to the Burmese ambassador in Dhaka, protesting against the landing of bullets and mortar shells from Burma in Bangladesh.

The Arakan Army is the military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority, which seeks independence from the central government of Burma. It has been attacking military posts in the western state since November.

It is part of a coalition of ethnic minority forces that launched an offensive in October and gained strategic territory in Burma’s northeast. Adjacent to the Chinese border. His success was seen as a major defeat for the military regime, which seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and is now embroiled in a wide-ranging civil war.

The alliance, called the Three Brotherhood Alliance, said in a statement on Monday that the Arakan Army attacked two border posts in Maung Dao township in Rakhine state and captured one of them on Sunday.

Arakan Army spokesman Khaing Thukha said fighting continued on Monday at the second checkpoint.

Bangladesh shares a 168-mile border with Burma and hosts more than 1 million Muslim Rohingya refugees, many of whom fled Buddhist-majority Burma since August 2017 when its army cracked down on the rebel group. had launched a brutal “clearance operation” against them after the attacks. .