B’desh offers Myanmar aid against Rohingya

DHAKA: Bangladesh on Monday proposed joint military operations with Myanmar against Rohingya militants fighting in Rakhine state, where thousands of villagers have fled fresh violence, an official said.

An upsurge in fighting in Rakhine, an impoverished state neighbouring Bangladesh, has been raging since Friday when Rohingya militants staged coordinated ambushes against Myanmar’s security forces.

More than 100 people, including around 80 militants, have been confirmed killed in the fightback, which has seen thousands of Rohingya villagers fleeing for Bangladesh.

More than 3,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar, where the stateless Muslim minority faces persecution, in the past three days, the United Nation refugee agency said on Monday.

Bangladesh has said there are thousands more Rohingya massed on its border with Myanmar, where it has stepped up patrols and pushed back hundreds of civilians who have tried to enter.

In a meeting with Myanmar’s charge d’affaires in Dhaka, a top Bangladeshi foreign ministry official proposed joint military efforts against the militants along the border.

“We proposed that if Myanmar wished, the security forces of the two countries could conduct joint operations against the militants, any non-state actors or the Arakan Army along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border,” a foreign ministry official said.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is a militant group that says it is fighting to protect the Muslim minority from abuses by Myanmar security forces and the majorityBuddhist Rakhine community.

A spokesperson for the Bangladesh foreign ministry also stated that a protest was lodged over Myanmar’s description of Rohingya militants as “Bengal terrorists” as “they are actually Myanmar nationals and no Bangladeshi penetrated the Myanmar border to carry out such activities.”.

There was no comment from the Myanmar diplomat over the same. AGENCIES