Dhaka, Oct 12 (IANS) Bangladesh has said it is responding to threats from its eastern neighbour Myanmar, which has amassed troops on the border and readied warships and fighter jets “in preparation for a large-scale conflict”.
The Myanmar military brought in tanks, artillery guns and 13 warships along its border with Bangladesh Sunday, The Daily Star newspaper said Monday quoting sources at the Bangladesh Armed Forces.

On its part, Bangladesh has strengthened its military build-up in a bid to repulse a Myanmarese incursion by preparing 30 warships in Chittagong and Khulna ports, a Bangladesh Navy official stationed at Chittagong told the newspaper.

Officially, Dhaka sought to play things down over the Myanmarese insistence on erecting a border fence.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni Sunday rejected reports about the heavy military build-up by Myanmar along the Bangladesh border, saying it was “a routine movement of the security personnel”.

“I had talks with our ambassador in Myanmar and he told me that it is a routine practice,” she told media, adding, “Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes also called the Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka and the envoy conveyed him the same message.”

However, the newspaper said, ground reality did not support the foreign minister’s claim “as various sources in the military, Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and intelligence agencies said that the situation on the border remained tense”.

Major General Mainul Islam, BDR director general, said: “The situation at Bangladesh-Myanmar border has remained tense.”

Dhaka fears problem on the sea front too.

“Myanmar has sent in artillery guns that will bring Chittagong under their firing range,” the navy officer told the newspaper.

“We in the Bangladesh Navy suspect that Myanmar wants to intrude into our sea and declare a large chunk of area as their Maritime Exclusive Zone,” the naval official said.

Bangladesh’s maritime borders with both Myamnar and India remain undemarcated and are a source of tension since all three neighbours want to explore for hydrocarbons in the Bay of Bengal.

The newspaper quoted unnamed sources in Sittwe (formerly known as Akyab) in Myanmar that the Myanmarese Air Force Tatmadaw has stationed three fighter planes at the Sittwe airfield.

Sittwe is only 80 km from Chittagong airport.