At least 12 Bangladeshi fishermen were kidnapped and taken to Myanmar from the Bay of Bengal, and more than 60 Rohingyas were prevented from entering Bangladesh through the Naf River in the past two days.
Local residents and Border Guard Bangladesh officials said the residents on the Bangladesh side are panicked as gunfire and unrest have intensified on the Myanmar side of the border over the past week, with repeated exchanges of fire heard, sometimes lasting for hours.
The escalation comes as Bangladesh hosts a three-day international conference on the Rohingya crisis from Monday in Cox鈥檚 Bazar.
Frightened by the situation, many border residents have left their homes for safer locations, while the possibility of a new Rohingya influx has increased.
Sources in the BGB said that recent clashes had broken out in Rakhine State between the Arakan Army and several Rohingya armed groups, including the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
Teknaf upazila nirbahi officer Sk Ahsan Uddin said that authorities suspected that the Arakan Army was behind the abduction of Bangladeshi fishermen and their trawler from the Bay of Bengal.
鈥極ur experience is that the Arakan Army carries out such kidnappings. Efforts are underway to bring the victims back,鈥� he said.
Lieutenant Colonel SM Khairul Alam, the commanding officer of BGB Battalion-34 in Cox鈥檚 Bazar, said that many Rohingyas had recently attempted to cross the Naf River in small boats.
鈥楤GB has stepped up surveillance along the border and is preventing illegal entry,鈥� he said, adding that gunfire was clearly audible from the Myanmar side.
Local officials said that the situation was under close monitoring.
Syed Hamja, a member of Gumdhum Union Parishad in Bandarban鈥檚 Naikhongchhari upazila, said that he, like many other families living along the border, had shifted his family to a safer place. He also said that a woman was critically injured on Wednesday after stepping on a landmine while collecting vegetables near her home.
Local people said that fresh gunfire erupted across the border on Friday night and continued for nearly seven hours between 10:00pm on Friday and 5:00am on Saturday.
According to multiple border sources, the ARSA, the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Organization, and the Arakan Rohingya Army have launched new attacks on Arakan Army positions. The clashes have displaced Rohingya families, many of whom are now gathered along the Naf River near Maungdaw Township, waiting for an opportunity to enter Bangladesh.
Since 2017, more than 1.3 million Rohingyas have fled atrocities by Myanmar鈥檚 military to take shelter in Bangladesh, according to Bangladesh government data.
In April this year, the UNHCR, in a letter to the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, urged Dhaka to ensure accommodation for an additional 1,13,000 Rohingyas who entered Bangladesh between November 2023 and April 27, 2025.