103 Myanmar troops flee to Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh — More than 100 members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police have fled their posts and taken shelter in Bangladesh to escape fighting between Myanmar security forces and an ethnic minority army, an official with Bangladesh’s border agency said Monday.

It is the first time that Myanmar forces have been known to flee into Bangladesh since an alliance of ethnic minority armies in Myanmar launched an offensive against the military government late last year.

Shariful Islam, spokesperson for Border Guard Bangladesh, said 103 Myanmar troops entered over the past two days during fighting with the Arakan Army in Myanmar’s Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh.

Myanmar’s military government had no immediate comment.

The Arakan Army is the military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority that seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government. It has been attacking army outposts in the western state since November.

Also on Monday, Bangladeshi media said two people — a Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya refugee— were killed in shelling from Myanmar after a house in Bandarban was hit.

(AP/Shafiqur Rahman) Members of the Myanmar Border Guard Police, dressed in civilian clothing, sit under trees on Monday after abandoning their posts as Bangladesh border guards stand guard in Ghumdhum, Bandarban, Bangladesh.