Dhaka, Oct 20 (IANS) Bangladesh, which is locked in a border conflict with its eastern neighbour, has alleged that Myanmar Navy Monday attacked its fishermen. Dhaka plans to lodge a formal protest with Yangon.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), the border guards, said it will lodge a protest with Myanmar authorities against snatching of a Bangladeshi fishing boat and nets by Myanmar naval force Sunday evening.

Rescued fishermen alleged that at least 10 armed navy men of Myanmar took away their boat and fishing nets and left them in the sea though they were fishing in Bangladesh waters.

The land border has been tense as Myanmar has ignored Bangladesh’s protests and has gone ahead with erecting a barbed wire fence along the 300 km border.

As per reports in Bangladeshi media, quoting official and intelligence sources, there has been deployment of troops on both sides, movement by naval ships and even readying of fighter jets.

Myanmar has rejected allegations of troops deployment on its side, calling it “routine work”, New Age newspaper said Tuesday.

Bangladesh has intensified patrolling along the frontier with reinforcements of border guards.

“We have beefed up our patrol along Myanmar border and reinforced our outposts there,” BDR director general Maj Gen Mohammad Mainul Islam told the newspaper Monday.

Dhaka has rounded up 44 Rohingyas, the Muslim tribals who fled Myanmar as the authorities in Myanmar’s bordering region have launched a voter enrolment drive.

Bangladesh has mounted diplomatic efforts and at the local level, sought flag meetings by the army and border guards authorities.

However, Lt. Col. Mozammal Hossein, commanding officer of BDR’s 42 rifles battalion at Teknaf, said the Myanmarese border guards have “not yet replied to BDR’s proposal for a flag meeting to defuse border tension”.