DHAKA: The Burmese security forces arrested at least 36 boat people from Bangladesh till Tuesday evening, said Maungdaw district police chief U Shwe Than.

“We have detained 36 boat peoples from Bangladesh in the ongoing operation along the international border. The border security force personnel are still looking for more infiltrators who might have been hiding in our territory,” the police chief said.

The authority booked a machine boat with some 180 passengers from Bangladesh in the early Sunday morning which entered in to the sea beach near by Chaingkha Lee Village of Rathidaung Township because of bad weather.

This kind of boats normally transports people from Bangladesh and Burma to Malaysia illegally with charging a large amount of money as traveling fees.

According to the official sources, the booked boat faced a troubled weather on the sea when it was moving towards its destination. Understanding the weather to be more problematic, the boat riders had suddenly changed its direction towards the Burma costal area.

Receiving the information about the entry of the machine boat to their territory, the security forces of Burma rushed to the spot and arrested 18 people from the boat. The rest fled to the nearby jungles of Mayu range.

“We have arrested 18 people on Sunday. Another batch of 18 people was picked up by our personnel on Tuesday. All the detainees are now in Maundaw police station. We are preparing to charge them for their illegal enter to Burma,” added the senior police official.

The authority is still conducting the search operation in the locality, where as a reliable source claims that five women passengers of the boat are also hiding somewhere in the jungles of sea beach areas.

Source: narinjara.com
BDST: 1625 HRS, NOV 01, 2013
SR/AKA/JCK