Myanamar hands over Bangladesh border guard abducted by its border patrol

Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) has returned Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) soldier Abdur Razzak, eight days after his abduction from the Naf River in Cox’s Bazar.

He was handed over to the BGB around 4:15pm on Thursday after a flag meeting between the two border guard forces at Maungdaw, just across the border in Myanmar, BGB Cox’s Bazar Sector Deputy Commander Major Aminul Islam told bdnews24.com.

A seven-member BGB team led by its Teknaf Battalion Commander Lt Col Abu Jar Al Jahid went to the Myanmar town on Thursday morning to negotiate the release.

Razzak was abducted following what Dhaka described as a shootout on the Naf River at Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf on Jun 17 between border patrols.

A BGB soldier was shot in the incident caused by a “misunderstanding”, while Nayek Abdur Razzak was abducted by BGP.

The foreign ministry summoned Myanmar’s envoy in Dhaka the next day and asked him for action to secure the release of the BGB soldier soonest possible.

Despite several calls from the BGB to its counterpart to hold flag meetings, it was delayed as the Myanmar foreign ministry did not instruct the border force over the matter.

No information on the condition of Razzak could be known but two photographs uploaded on the BGP’s Facebook page showed him bloodied and handcuffed.

The pictures went viral on the social media triggering criticisms. A Bangladesh lawmaker came down hard over the issue during Parliament session.

Meanwhile, on Jun 23, the BGP said Bangladesh will have to take in 555 victims of human trafficking, who the country claim were Bangladeshis, without checking on their nationality.

They are among the 727 rescued by the Myanmar Navy from the Andaman Sea.

Most of them were Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar's Rakhine province.

Bangladesh State Minister for Home Assaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that Myanmar was ‘going too far’ by attaching a condition for Razzak's release.

The BGB clarified that Myanmar’s decision to return Razzak was ‘unconditional’ on Monday and the next day it confirmed receipt of a BGP letter for holding a flag meeting.