Chittagong, Jun 16 (bdnews24.com) – There have been no fresh Rohingya intrusion through Teknaf over the past three days, Border Guard Bangladesh said on Saturday. Lieutenant Colonel Zahid Hasan, Commanding Officer of the 42nd battalion of the border guards, told bdnews24.com that the situation was gradually calming down. "It is gradually becoming normal," he said. "I heard that the situation in Myanmar is also slowly gaining normalcy," Hasan added. The government has relaxed its temporary ban on fishing in Naf river on Bangladesh-Myanmar border but operations of the Teknaf land port remains suspended. People of the Rohingya community, mostly Muslims, tried to enter Bangladesh following past week's violent sectarian clashes with the Rakhaines, who are mostly Buddhists. The Bangladesh government, however, tightened its security along the Myanmar border turning down repeated international calls to allow refugees enter. According to government estimates there are already around 500,000 Rohingyas currently living in Bangladesh. The border forces said it had detained 728 Rohingya refugees, frustrating their intrusion attempts through Teknaf, and sent back all but 13 of them. Apart from them, the coast guards also sent back 44 refugees they had detained. The BGB commander said deporation of 13 detained Rohingyas was underway. He said there had been no fresh influx of the refugees over the past three days. The temporary ban on fishing in the bordering region of the Naf river was relaxed from Saturday. "The ban is being lifted with several conditions," Hasan said adding that the border watchdog would keep an eye so that no fishing boat carried any Rohingyas trying to intrude into the country. On Jun 13, the 42nd battalion had proposed a flag meeting with its Myanmar counterpart, Nasaka, over the prevailing situation. Hasan said Nasaka could not fix a date amid the volatile situation within Myanmar. bdnews24.com/mc/zk/ta/nir/1850h |