| Troops all alert on Myanmar front Leaves of BDR men restricted; Nasaka round up 10,000 Rohingyas for push-in
In the wake of the mobilisation of a huge number of Myanmarese troops along the border, Bangladesh is making all-out preparations to thwart any incursion attempt by them, highly placed sources in the government said. Myanmar authorities continue erecting concrete pillars for barbed wire fence along Myanmar border at Naikkhangchhari in Bandarban Bangladesh has already sent three army brigades to its hilly border with Myanmar and has readied another brigade following the deliberate provocative moves the latter, sources said.
Intelligence officials said Bangladesh Armed Forces are taking special exercises to handle any eventualities if all diplomatic channels to resolve the conflict are exhausted.
The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) has imposed restriction on all kinds of leaves, a move which is taken only in 'abnormal' situation, BDR Director General (DG) Major General Mainul Islam said.
A Foreign Ministry official, however, said Bangladesh believes that all crises with its neighbours could be solved through diplomatic means. "But that does not mean that we will remain idle if the country's territorial sovereignty is at stake," he said.
The DG of the country's border forces said, "This is an abnormal situation. No country generally deploys its armed forces on the border. We don't like the erection of barbed-wire fences by the engineering corps of the Myanmar army."
He said his forces are always on war footing. "Our boys will just open fire in case of incursion into any part of the country," he told The Daily Star.
Meanwhile, Nasaka, the Myanmarese border guards, has gathered about 10,000 Rohingyas near its border with Bangladesh in a bid to push them into the Bangladesh territory as part of their latest provocative move, sources at the intelligence agencies said last night.
They have been kept at several bordering points opposite Naikhongchhari in Bandarban over the past few days, they said.
The recent Myanmarese military deployment has prompted Bangladesh to strengthen its military presence along the border.
Asked about what further measures he is going to take, Mainul said BDR will be reinforced with more Border Operations Outposts (BOP) on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
The reinforcement was required as the Myanmar military junta deployed huge troops with heavy weapons within five kilometres of the border.
According to different sources on the border, Myanmar has deployed nine military battalions. They were deployed last Friday along the border from Maungdaw to Paletwa. They are: Light Battalions 55 and 20, and Light Infantry Battalions (LIB) 234, 263, 344, 233, 289 and 538.
The LIB 538 based in Rathidaung has been shifted to the Paletwa border and posted at the triangular position facing Bangladesh and India borders, intelligence officials said.
Intelligence sources said Myanmar had recently acquired the technology of building tunnels, aircraft, naval ships and missiles with a range of between 500 and 1,000 kilometres.
Recently the Japanese government has intercepted the supply of magnetic measuring devices used to build long-range ballistic missile system; the shipment was made to Myanmar.
A raid made by the country's police suggests that North Korea has already transferred the Taep'o-dong-2 equipment to Myanmar. Weighed 79,189 kg, Taep'o-dong-2 is the longest of North Korean missiles--it is thought to have a range of 4,000 kilometres.
Myanmarese junta has already bought short and medium-range ballistic missiles (SRMBs) from China and North Korea, SRMB air defence system from Russia, low altitude surface-to-surface missiles from Ukraine and Bulgaria.
Our Bandarban correspondent Monirul Islam Monu reports: People living on the Bangladesh-Myanmar bordering areas have become panicky because of a war-like situation at the frontier.
Locals said Myanmar authorities have increased army deployment at the border under cover of setting up barbed-wire fences there.
Sources who have contacts with both sides of the border said the Myanmar army had set up equipments for high-powered artillery fire at Bolibazar area opposite Chakdhala border at Naikhhongchhari upazila.
Myanmar has also stationed 10 fighter planes at Sittowe (Akiab) Airport and anchored 12 warships in its two rivers as "backup".
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