Twelve Bangladeshi pilgrims were sentenced to six months in prison in Burma last week for entering the country with fake Burmese ID cards, said a Burmese monk from Sittwe.

"They were arrested by authorities from Taungup and Sittwe towns when they entered Burma to visit several sacred Buddhist places in Burma using Burmese national ID cards. They were sentenced to six months in prison," he said.

Nine Bangladeshi citizens were arrested with fake Burmese national ID cards from a road checkpoint in Taungup Township in Arakan as they were traveling to Burma proper by bus.

Another three were arrested by immigration officials at the Sittwe airport in possession of forged national ID cards as they were waiting to fly from Sittwe to Rangoon.

They were brought to Burma by some monks staying in Bangladesh for a pilgrimage using forged national ID cards that were issued by immigration officers who had been bribed, the source said.

"On their ID cards, nine of the Bangladeshi citizens had stated  that they were from Dedaye and Labutta Township in Burma's delta division, but the authorities who checked them doubted it when they asked questions because they could not speak in Burmese. The authorities arrested them and sent them to prison," the monk added.

After their arrest, the authorities charged them in the Taungup Township court under immigration laws for entering Burma illegally with forged ID cards.

"I saw nine Bangladesh citizens in Taungup police station's lockup. Among them, eight were elderly women and one a man. All the Bangladeshis are Buddhists from Bandarban District in Bangladesh," said an elder from Taungup.

The Bangladeshi citizens were identified as Marama nationals from Rownsari in Bandarban District. According to a family source, they traveled to Burma last month through the Maungdaw border point for a pilgrimage.

It was learnt that this is the first time a group of Bangladeshi citizens have been arrested by Burmese authorities for traveling illegally to Burma for a pilgrimage.