COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh: An 11-year-old girl has described to Arab News how she found her father’s body in the street after he was shot dead by Myanmar army soldiers hunting down Rohingya Muslim men in Rakhine state.
Jannta Ara Begum and her family had been planning to leave their village when it was cordoned off by soldiers, who went from house to house looking for men. They escaped to a nearby jungle hilltop in Uttarpara, and returned when they thought the army had left.
Jannta’s father, Syed Alan, 48, a carpenter, went out to collect some rice for the family. “As soon as he left the house, we heard gunshots from the market place,” Jannta said.
“My mother and I were very frightened. The neighbors told us that my father had been slaughtered by the Myanmar army. I rushed to the spot and found my father lying on the street. He had been shot twice. It was a trauma for me and my family.”
Jannta and her mother, Anowara Begum, immediately set off toward the Bangladesh border with Jannta’s three brothers and four sisters. “We could not even arrange a funeral to bury my father,” she said.
“For the last eight days, I took shelter in a schoolyard along with mother and brothers and sisters. We have yet to find a tent to sleep in at night.”
Arab News found Jannat asking for help to buy food because she had not eaten for 24 hours. The refugees at the Rohingya camps in Ukhia and Teknaf area are living in miserable conditions.
A local volunteer from Cox’s Bazar, Mohammed Ashraf, said: “Every day we see new faces of Rohingya refugees, taking the total number around 420,000. They are desperate for food, shelter and life-saving medicine.”
The UN human rights agency in Bangladesh says it needs $7.7 million to supply tents and complete registration and other processes for the Rohingya refugees.
The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, has begun a week-long immunization program for refugee children aged 6 months to 15 years, targeting 150,000 children. The World Health Organization is providing 100,000 medical kits, 2 million water purification tablets and 20,000 cholera tablets.
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Rohingya girl, 11, tells Arab News how her father was shot dead
Rohingya girl, 11, tells Arab News how her father was shot dead
Bomb attacks on Thailand petrol stations injure 4: army
BANGKOK: Assailants detonated bombs at nearly a dozen petrol stations in Thailand’s south early Sunday, injuring four people, the army said, the latest attacks in the insurgency-hit region.
A low-level conflict since 2004 has killed thousands of people as rebels in the Muslim-majority region bordering Malaysia battle for greater autonomy.
Several bombs exploded within a 40-minute period after midnight on Sunday, igniting 11 petrol stations across Thailand’s southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, an army statement said.
Authorities did not announce any arrests or say who may be behind the attacks.
“It happened almost at the same time. A group of an unknown number of men came and detonated bombs which damaged fuel pumps,” Narathiwat Governor Boonchauy Homyamyen told local media, adding that one police officer was injured in the province.
A firefighter and two petrol station employees were injured in Pattani province, the army said.
All four were admitted to hospitals, none with serious injuries, a Thai army spokesman told AFP.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters that security agencies believed the attacks were a “signal” timed with elections for local administrators taking place on Sunday, and “not aimed at insurgency.”
The army’s commander in the south, Narathip Phoynok, told reporters he ordered security measures raised to the “maximum level in all areas” including at road checkpoints and borders.
The nation’s deep south is culturally distinct from the rest of Buddhist-majority Thailand, which took control of the region more than a century ago.
The area is heavily policed by Thai security forces — the usual targets of insurgent attacks.
A low-level conflict since 2004 has killed thousands of people as rebels in the Muslim-majority region bordering Malaysia battle for greater autonomy.
Several bombs exploded within a 40-minute period after midnight on Sunday, igniting 11 petrol stations across Thailand’s southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, an army statement said.
Authorities did not announce any arrests or say who may be behind the attacks.
“It happened almost at the same time. A group of an unknown number of men came and detonated bombs which damaged fuel pumps,” Narathiwat Governor Boonchauy Homyamyen told local media, adding that one police officer was injured in the province.
A firefighter and two petrol station employees were injured in Pattani province, the army said.
All four were admitted to hospitals, none with serious injuries, a Thai army spokesman told AFP.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters that security agencies believed the attacks were a “signal” timed with elections for local administrators taking place on Sunday, and “not aimed at insurgency.”
The army’s commander in the south, Narathip Phoynok, told reporters he ordered security measures raised to the “maximum level in all areas” including at road checkpoints and borders.
The nation’s deep south is culturally distinct from the rest of Buddhist-majority Thailand, which took control of the region more than a century ago.
The area is heavily policed by Thai security forces — the usual targets of insurgent attacks.
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