Naikhangchhari, Bangladesh (BBN)-Myanmarese Army and Border Guard Police (BGP) are violating the border agreement by installing booby trap devices, plastic mines and IED devices within 30 meters of the border, according to an October intelligence report submitted to the Bangladeshi Home Ministry by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
The report mentioned that the Myanmarese Army and the BGP are setting up the munitions within 30 meters of Ashartali and Lembuchhari BGB outposts, clearly violating the 1980 Bangladesh-Burma Border Agreement, reports BNI.
According to the agreement, neither of the two countries can set anything up within 30 meters of the border line, but Myanmar has violated the deal several times a BGB source said.
According to the report, the BGB recovered 68 plastic mines and seven IEDs within seven meters of the border line at border pillar No. 46 of Ashartali outpost at Naikhangchhari from 19th to 28th December 2013.
Moreover, a Bangladeshi woodcutter recovered two IEDs from nearby pillar No.49 at Lemuchhari on 1st June 2013.
The devices were recovered from 20 meters inside Myanmar.
Earlier on 17th April 2013, another Bangladeshi citizen also recovered an IED from the same area, the report said.
The report quoted locals and public representatives of the border areas as saying that Myanmar set up the devices in a bid to save their barbed wire fence as some locals from both countries sometimes cut the fence to get through it.
‘booby traps were set up to stop the movement of the activists of the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) as Myamar believes activists move around the remote frontier areas of Bangladesh, the report also noted.
A booby trap is a device or set-up that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a victim when it is unknowingly triggered by their presence or actions.
Myanmarese Army and BGP booby trap devices were set up in a very aggressive manner that violated the border deal, according to BGB officials.
The report recommended that the BGB should protest the setting up of Booby Traps and other devices installed by Myanmar at a flag meeting between the two countries forces.
It also recommended that the BGB strengthened its regular patrols of the border line.
BBN/ASI-26Nov14-7:00pm (BST)