KM Asad—AFP
Relatives of the deceased carried bodies into Bangladesh after being unable to bury them in Myanmar
Five Rohingya shot dead in Myanmar have been buried in Bangladesh at a mass funeral attended by hundreds of people after their relatives carried their bodies across the border, police said on Thursday.
The Rohingya villagers who carried the victims’ bodies said they had been killed by the Myanmar military on Wednesday, Bangladesh border guard, commander Manzurul Hasan Khan, told AFP. They were buried in a Muslim graveyard along with a sixth man who died of unknown causes.
“Five of them had bullet wounds,” said Chailau Marma, deputy police chief of Cox’s Bazar, which borders Myanmar. “Relatives of the deceased carried the bodies into Bangladesh after they failed to bury them in Myanmar. They all died yesterday.”
Anwar Kamal, a local leader of Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League party, told the Daily Star newspaper they were killed during heavy shooting in their village along the Bangladesh border.
Last week border guards had allowed a Rohingya couple to be buried in Bangladesh after they were shot dead and the wife gang-raped when they headed back to their Myanmar village, Khan said.
Rohingya refugees have poured into Bangladesh, fleeing a massive security sweep in Rakhine state by Myanmar forces following a series of deadly ambushes there by Rohingya militants on Aug. 25. The United Nations says 164,000 refugees have so far entered Bangladesh.
Scores have arrived needing treatment for serious bullet wounds, while others have lost limbs after apparently setting off landmines along the border. Around 50 gunshot victims have been taken to a major hospital in the city of Chittagong, some 200 kilometers north of the Myanmar border because the local clinics lack the facilities to treat their injuries.
Police said two of those taken to the hospital have died.