A group of soldiers of the Burmese army’s general engineering unit known as GE that is constructing a fence along the border in Maungdaw in northwestern Arakan State was attacked and their vehicle burned down allegedly by an armed group.
An officer of the GE unit on condition of anonymity told Narinjara that the attack took place on 24th of January at border pillar no. 49 in Bandhula under Nasaka Area No. 1 in Maungdaw Township on the Bangladeshi border.
“About 40 armed rebels suddenly attacked five of our soldiers including car-driver Maung Chan Chan who were working at the border pillar no. 49 near Bandhula Village around 4:30 pm on 24th of this month”, said the officer.
He said the soldiers escaped the attack, but their car left behind was set on fire by the rebels.
This is the second rebel attack on the unarmed soldiers of the GE unit that is constructing the fence on the Bangladeshi border.
One soldier was killed and three others abducted in the first attack that took place at the border pillar no. 51 on 6 November 2012. The abducted soldiers are still missing.
According to local residents, the army and Nasaka, the border security force, have stepped up their troops along the border near the area of the incident and have been searching for the attackers.
The GE officer and local residents have speculated that the attackers could be the forces of the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) based on the Burma-Bangladesh border. But Narinjara is still unable to verify this independently.
The GE officer said most of their soldiers are now worrying about going to work for the fence construction as they are unarmed and repeatedly being attacked by the armed rebels taking the opportunity of security weakness along the border.
