DHAKA: Bangladeshi authorities said on Thursday they had strengthened security along the border with Myanmar after one of the most powerful ethnic minority armies claimed full control of the frontier.

The Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic militia in Rakhine, announced earlier this week that it had captured the last Myanmar army outpost in the border town of Maungdaw, allowing the group to completely control the northern state.

Rakhine has become a focal point in Myanmar’s nationwide civil war, in which opposition groups and ethnic militias are fighting the military junta that ousted the country’s elected government in a coup in 2021.

By taking over the northern region, the Arakan Army now controls the entire 270-km border with Bangladesh.

“The Arakan Army has (started) taking control over the Bangladesh-Myanmar border around one year back ... Now, the Arakan Army has taken over the control of its remaining parts,” said Maj. Syed Ishtiaq Morshed, commander of the Border Guard Bangladesh in Teknaf subdistrict, which shares a border with Myanmar, opposite the town of Maungdaw.

“We don’t have any direct contact with the Arakan Army as they are not any legal or recognized entity ... We have strengthened our monitoring and patrols in border areas to prevent any sort of further intrusion.”

Morshed told Arab News that the Bangladesh Navy, Naval Police, Coast Guard, and the Rapid Action Battalion elite police force have also been deployed to the border region to “prevent any law and order situation” inside Bangladeshi territory.

“We are hearing the sound of gun battles from the other side of the border every day,” he said.

Clashes between Myanmar’s military-controlled government forces and the ethnic militia started in late October 2023, with a multi-pronged offensive against the junta. Fighting has intensified in the past few weeks.

“For the last two weeks, we have heard the sound of the heavy gunfire inside Myanmar area,” said Sheikh Ehsan Uddin, administrative head of Teknaf.

“Security has been beefed up in the border area, and the number of patrol forces with the Border Guard Bangladesh and Coast Guard has been increased.”

The movement of all boats between Teknaf and Saint Martin island off the Bangladeshi coast has been suspended from Thursday. And restrictions have been imposed on those traveling along the Naf River, which marks the border of southeastern Bangladesh and northwestern Myanmar.

“Villagers and locals are allowed to cross the Naf River only during high tide, as our boats need to get closer to the Myanmar border during low tide,” Uddin said.

“Our Coast Guard will look after the issue so that Bangladeshi boats don’t enter into Myanmar territory by any chance.”

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong judge on Thursday convicted seven people, including a pro-democracy former lawmaker, of rioting during mob violence at a subway station at the height of the city’s anti-government protests in July 2019.
Prosecutors accused former legislator Lam Cheuk-ting and the six other defendants of provoking members of a group of about 100 men armed with wooden poles and metal rods who attacked protesters and bystanders at a train station. The men, all clad in white shirts, in contrast with the black worn by protesters, claimed to be protecting their homeland in Yuen Long, a residential district in Hong Kong’s New Territories.
Dozens of people, including Lam, were injured in the violence, a key chapter that escalated the protest movement as the public criticized police for their delayed response. The landmark ruling could shape the city’s historical narrative of the incident.
Judge Stanley Chan ruled that Lam was not acting as a mediator as he had claimed, but rather was trying to exploit the situation for political gain.
He said Lam’s words directed at the white-shirted men had “fanned the flames.”
The seven defendants are expected to be sentenced in February. Several members of the public sitting in the gallery cried after hearing the verdicts. Others waved at the defendants, with one shouting to Lam, “Hang in there, Ting!” Lam appeared to be at ease.
The prosecution alleged the defendants had either berated the white-shirted men, used obscene hand gestures, hurled objects or shot jets of water at them with a hosepipe.
The defendants had pleaded not guilty to the rioting charge.
During the trial, Lam said he chose to go to Yuen Long because he hoped his then position as a lawmaker could pressure the police to act quickly. He said he could not leave the scene while fellow residents were in danger. Some defendants who targeted the white-shirted men with a hosepipe argued that they were just trying to stop the attackers from advancing.
Chan, the judge, rejected the arguments of some defendants that they acted in self-defense.
The 2019 protests were sparked by a proposed extradition law that would have allowed criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to the mainland for trial. The government withdrew the bill, but the protesters widened their demands to include direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountability.
The social movement was the biggest challenge to the Hong Kong government since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. In response, Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020, leading to the arrest of many activists. Others were silenced or went into exile.
In November, Lam was sentenced to six years and nine months in jail in the city’s biggest national security case.
More than 10,000 people were arrested in connection to the protests for various crimes, such as rioting and participating in an unauthorized assembly. About 10 white-shirted men were convicted in other cases related to the mob violence in July 2019, local media reported.