The Burmese Ethnic Armed Organisation (EAO), the Arakan Army (AA) ambushed a Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) patrol in the Big Modak area of Thanchi in Bandarban, Bangladesh on 26 August at about 9:30 am.
BGB Nayek (Sergeant) Jakir Hossain was shot and injured during the fighting, said Colonel Waliur Rahman, Sector Commander of Bandarban BGB.
Soon after the attack started additional BGB men from nearby camps joined the fighting, which continued until 3:00pm.
Additional BGB men and soldiers from camps in Ruma, Thanchi, Ali Kadam and Bandarban Sadar were dispatched to the remote area by helicopter, according to a BGB official.
It was planned that a joint force of Bangladesh Army and the BGB would launch an operation on 27 August to flush out members of the AA from the remote Thanchi border area of Bandarban.
The BGB Director General Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed said: "We are sending more forces [Army and BGB] there and will launch an all-out operation today to flush them out.
"We have requested that the Myanmar Army seal the border on their side so that they [the Myanmar Army] can take action against the separatists during the drive."
He also said that their Myanmar counterparts had assured them of all sorts of help.
The BGB boss, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told reporters: "We will root them [the separatists] out from the area in a combined operation so that they cannot create such a situation again."
On 25 August the BGB seized 13 horses being sent to the AA through their area, according to a BGB official.
The wounded BGB man was taken to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Chittagong, then to Dhaka by helicopter, sources in the BGB said, adding that he was out of danger.
On 14 July BGB personnel rescued two Burma Army soldiers who been abducted by the AA. The soldiers were handed back to the Burma Army three days later.
On 27 August, the day after the AA attack, police in Rangamati detained Aung Nu Young, age 25, from Rajasthali Upazila for alleged links to the AA, according to police from Bandarban.
He was detained at a house owned by Dr Ranaiju Rakhaine, “who is directly linked to the Arakan Army”, according to Wahidullah Sarker, the officer-in-charge of Rajasthali Police Station.
The police also seized Cameras, laptops, motorbikes, some army uniforms and three horses that allegedly belong to the AA.
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
