If required, Bangladesh will take Myanmar to UN on border shelling: Home Minister 

Gunshots and heavy firing were also heard on Saturday morning from the Myanmar side on the Bandarban border a day after a Rohingya youth was killed in mortar explosion inside Bangladesh, prompting some border-side families to move to other villages for safety. 

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said Bangladesh will express its concern about Myanmar's mortar shelling into Bangladesh territory before the United Nations if efforts for a peaceful solution fail. 

"We do not want any conflict. As we want a peaceful solution, we will continue our efforts for that. If it fails, we will take the issue to the UN," the minister told journalists in Dhaka on Saturday.  

Fears grip people living by the bordering villages in Bandarban, as some 35 families of Konarpara of Bandarban's Tumbru moved to their relatives on Saturday. 

Amid the tensions, the SSC exam centre at Ghumdhum High School was shifted to Cox's Bazar Kutupalong High School, according to local union parishad Chairman AKM Jahangir Aziz.

On Friday, a 15-year-old Rohingya boy was killed and at least six people were injured when mortar shells fired from Myanmar exploded in Bangladesh – the latest in a series of violent incidents.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Director (Operations) Lt Col Faizur Rahman said BGB protested the shelling on Friday night that killed the Rohingya boy and injured six others. 

More than 10 lakh Rohingyas live in camps in southern Bangladesh. The camps comprise the world's largest refugee settlement, the vast majority having fled from Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017.

The BGB said it was on alert as restrictions were imposed on border-side movements.       

"BGB is on high alert. We are closely monitoring the situation so that no one from the Myanmar side can enter Bangladesh," the BGB director (operations) said.

For more than a month, the "Arakan Army '' has been fighting with Myanmar's security forces in the country's Rakhine state across Bangladesh's Ghumdhum border at Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban. During this period, mortar shells have landed inside Bangladesh multiple times, with Myanmar also violating Bangladesh's airspace.      

Bangladesh this month issued a statement expressing deep concern over falling mortar shells inside Bangladesh territory, indiscriminate aerial firing from Myanmar in the bordering areas, and air space violation from Myanmar.

The Myanmar envoy in Dhaka was summoned multiple times in recent weeks so that those concerns could be conveyed.

"Myanmar never keeps its word. We are making efforts both bilaterally and multilaterally. It will continue," Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said. 

Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said, "We have been strongly protesting the shelling into our territory…We want a peaceful solution. Let their internal conflict remain within their boundaries," said the minister. 

Panicked villagers leaving home 

Dil Mohammad Bhatto, a Ghumdhum union parishad member, said Friday's shelling has intensified fears among people. Gunshots and heavy firing were also heard on Saturday morning from the Myanmar side.       

"Like the 35 families, many others in border-side villages are preparing to move elsewhere for security reasons," he said. 

Nur Hasina, a resident of Konarpara village who moved to Majherpara on Saturday, said a mortar shell landed in her courtyard on Friday night, but it did not explode. However, another mortar shell exploded near her house – escalating fears in the neighbourhood.      

Dil Mohammad, a Rohingya leader for around 4,000 refugees who have been living on the border's no man's land strip since the 2017 Rohingya influx, said, "Myanmar has been repeatedly trying to drive away the Rohingyas from the zero-line. On Friday, they fired the shells deliberately."