COX’S BAZAR, Banglades: A suspected land mine planted near the Bangladesh border has killed three Rohingya villagers fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, a Bangladesh border official quoted a survivor as saying.
Border Guard Bangladesh commander Lt. Col. Manzurul Hasan Khan told AFP that troops had heard the blast Saturday night about 100 meters from the border.
“We learnt from the injured survivor that they were four of them. The survivor said the other three died on the spot in an explosion — likely an anti-personnel mine,” Khan told AFP.
He said border guards saw the survivor coming to the demarcation line with multiple injuries to his body and face.
Another Rohingya was injured by a suspected mine in the same place after he had returned to his village to retrieve his cows and bring them to Bangladesh.
Last week two Rohingya including a child had their legs blown off and another person was injured after they stepped onto suspected mines near the border
Bangladesh on Wednesday summoned Myanmar’s ambassador to protest at the planting of land mines along the border.
Aid groups and Bangladesh government officials say they have been planted to deter fleeing members of the minority Rohingya community from returning to Myanmar.
It is the second time Dhaka has summoned the ambassador since an upsurge of violence in Rakhine state triggered a refugee crisis, with 294,000 people flooding across the border since August 25.
Amnesty International said Saturday that Myanmar security forces planted the mines, which are banned internationally.
Based on interviews with witnesses and analysis by its experts, Amnesty said there appeared to be a targeted use of land mines along a narrow stretch of the northwestern border with Rakhine state.
“This is another low in what is already a horrific situation in Rakhine state,” said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty’s Crisis Response Director, who is currently near the border.
“The Myanmar military’s callous use of inherently indiscriminate and deadly weapons at highly trafficked paths around the border is putting the lives of ordinary people at enormous risk,” she added.
Three Rohingya reported killed by suspected mine in Myanmar
Three Rohingya reported killed by suspected mine in Myanmar
US lawmaker Fine criticized by rights advocates, Democrats after anti-Muslim remarks
- Fine’s past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others
WASHINGTON: Rights advocates and multiple Democrats on Tuesday condemned anti-Muslim comments by Republican US Representative Randy Fine who said on Sunday that “the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Fine, whose comments against Muslims have often sparked outrage, has dismissed the criticism and since doubled down on his remarks on social media. The Council on American-Islamic Relations designated the Republican US lawmaker from Florida as an anti-Muslim extremist last year.
“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” Fine said on X on Sunday in a post that had over 40 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.
Some high-profile Democrats including California Governor Gavin Newsom called for him to resign while House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Fine an “Islamophobic, disgusting and unrepentant bigot.”
Jeffries also called for Republicans — who hold a majority in both chambers of Congress — to hold Fine accountable.
“To ignore this is to accept and normalize it,” Democratic US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. Fine’s past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others. Rights advocates have noted a rise in Islamophobia in the US in recent years due to a range of factors including hard-line immigration policies and white-supremacist rhetoric, as well as the fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza on American society.
