Maungdaw, Arakan State: Two agents of Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) have taken control of Maungdaw’s border river transport, according to a trader who asked not to be named.

The two agents were identified only as Putu and Fayas from Maungdaw Township. The trader said they had taken over the most lucrative route for river transport and blocked access to all other boats.

“In Maungdaw, we have a boat owner’s association, which supervises how members operate their boats in the public transport sector,” said an official of the organization.

“Boats travel from Maungdaw along the river to villages including Ngakura, Mingalagyi Kyein Chaung, Taungbro, and others, and they go one by one each day. But the main income route is from Maungdaw to Teknaf,” the official said.

“That route is now controlled by two agents of Nasaka.”

“We have to pay 100 taka for a one-way trip from Teknaf to Maungdaw on a Bangladeshi boat, but the Burmese boat charges 4,500 kyats one way (more than 300 taka),” said Anu Meah, a trader from Teknaf.

A traveller en route to Bangladesh for medical treatment complained that the boats operated by the two Nasaka agents leave from Maungdaw too late to make it convenient for passengers to continue travelling to Chittagong, adding that alternate boats were more expensive.

“If we want to travel on a Bangladeshi boat, we have to pay more money, 150 taka, to pass and get permission from authorities, but we will arrive early enough to continue on to Chittigong.”