An ethnic minority insurgent group has captured a junta base on Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh and parts of Bangladesh’s territory, reported Bangladeshi media on Friday. Dhaka is silent about the occupation, but locals said that the Arakan army patrols inside Bangladesh.
Arakan Army has taken control of parts of Bangladesh’s Teknaf region near the Naf river. Arakan Army mostly received its training, weapons and ammunition from China and India.
The Arakan Army, or AA, which resumed its battle against the junta for territory in Myanmar’s west in November, controls nine townships in Rakhine state and one in Chin state.
In January, the AA turned its focus to Maungdaw, a strategic township for border relations with Bangladesh. On Thursday, AA troops captured junta Border Guard Station No. 6 in Inn Din village.
Nearly 600 soldiers were stationed at the guard post, said one resident who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.
“The border guards, combined with forces from other outposts, were stationed in that camp,” he said. “A junta division commander was also posted there. There are many casualties from the junta side and some soldiers ran away.”
In late May, junta airstrikes killed one civilian and wounded nearly a dozen in Maungdaw township. The AA launched an unsuccessful offensive against the same border post on Jan. 5, but were held back by the junta’s combined navy, air force and army.
RFA tried to contact AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha and Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein, but neither responded by the time of publication.
Junta troops built the post in 2017 after destroying a predominantly ethnic minority Rohingya village that was located there, residents told Global Defense Corp.
The AA is also attacking Maungdaw’s Myin Hlut-based Border Guard Station No. 9. The insurgent group captured Maungdaw’s Border Police Command Office No. 1, which is the largest junta camp in Maungdaw township, residents said, adding that only five junta-occupied border guard posts remain in the township.
Rebels are maintaining attacks on Ann, Thandwe and Maungdaw townships, where the junta’s Western Regional Military Headquarters for Rakhine state is based.
A ceasefire between the AA and the military broke down in November, at the same time that other ethnic minority and pro-democracy insurgents launched attacks that have put forces of the junta that seized power in 2021 under unprecedented pressure.
Myanmar has been showing signs of its notorious ambition of invading St Martin’s Island in Bangladesh. For the last several days, Myanmar has been continuing to shoot trawlers and other vessel services on the Teknaf and St Martin’s sea lanes.
According to media reports, the shots are being fired from Myanmar trawlers and gunboats by illegally entering the Bangladesh maritime boundary.
Following these incidents, Md Mainul Kabir, director general of the Myanmar wing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the media, “We protested on the first day this incident occurred. We will protest again through diplomatic channels. However, we understand that normal conditions do not prevail in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. It is unclear who currently controls the area, but our diplomatic efforts will continue”.
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