BANGLADESH NEWS
A girl who was among 19 boat people trying to enter Bangladesh on Sunday night claimed herself to be Bangladeshi, according to BGB.
Sharmila Akter Saida also said she lived at Halishahar in Chittagong with her family and had gone for treatment to a village at Maungdaw in Rakhine state of Myanmar just on the other side of the river Naf.
But the girl, aged around 12, couldn't tell exactly when and with whom she went to Maungdaw as this correspondent tried to talk to her, despite repeated requests from BGB not to.
She was under BGB custody at Shah Porir Dweep border outpost.
The other intruders were kept detained till 6:00pm yesterday on the island before being sent back to Maungdaw on a boat. They were Rohingyas, the BGB said.
What the girl could tell the officials was that a few days after reaching the Myanmarese village she started hearing about the sectarian violence. On Sunday evening, she fled with 18 others on a country boat.
A team of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) intercepted the boat near Jaliapara coast of Shah Porir Dweep around 10:30pm Sunday.
According to BGB, Saida claimed to be a class-V student of Goribe Newaz Shishu Niketon at Halishahar in the port city.
One of the other 18, Ehsanul Hoque, 24, while talking to yesterday afternoon, claimed the girl went to his family house at Padongcha. His family has had long-term relations with her family, he said.
“We once stayed as neighbours at Teknaf and later our family shifted to Padongcha while Saida's to Chittagong. The girl went to our house a few days before the ethnic clashes broke out [over a week ago].”
He said he had been looking for a chance to flee as miscreants started kidnapping the males of his village and adjoining areas.
Ehsanul, his two elder brothers Jobber and Hamiduijjaman, their uncle Md Tarek and the girl left the village Sunday evening and got on a boat around 9:00pm from a nearby coast.
As their boat was about to reach the coast at Jaliapara of Shah Porir Dweep, the BGB team intercepted them, he said.claims of Saida and Ehsanul.
Lt Col Md Zahid Hasan, commanding officer of BGB 42 Battalion, said the girl gave the force the mobile phone number of one of her family members. The BGB was trying to make contact with the person.
“We didn't send the girl as she had no guardian with her. We will verify her claim and decide about her,” said the BGB official, adding that Rohingyas often manufactured false stories to intrude into Bangladesh.
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