Monks coming back Arrested in Bangladesh

November 5, Narinjara News


Cox's Bazaar: Bangladesh Rifles, the country's border security force
arrested three monks coming back home from Burma in Teknaf Town, opposite
Burma's Maungdaw, on November 2 after they arrived in town on board a
small ferry boat.

The arrested monks have been identified as U Nadiya (17) U Painya Thiha
(18) and U Nada Ka (17). All are reportedly from the Chittagong Hill Tract
in Bangladesh.

The three were arrested by Bangladesh Rifles, as they could not speak
Bengali fluently, a monk on the border said.

The three monks had been detained in an interrogation cell by Nasaka,
Burma's border security force in Maungdaw for at least two days after
being arrested in Burma.

Later, Nasaka forces sent them back to Bangladesh on a small ferry boat.
They were then arrested by Bangladesh Rifles soon after they arrived at
the border town of Teknaf from Maundaw.

The Bangladesh police produced the three monks before a judge in Cox's
Bazaar district court on Saturday, and they were charged with illegally
crossing over into Burma , an eyewitness said.

Relatives of monks' from Chittagong , however, arrived in Cox's Bazaar
town yesterday evening with documents and government certificates to prove
the identity of the monks.

Many monks belonging to Bangladesh have returned home recently from Burma
after the Burmese authorities barred monks from studying in monasteries in
Sittwe and Rangoon.

On 2 October, 11 monks arrived in Bangladesh from Burma . On 4 October,
four monks arrived and on 24 October, 12 monks arrived in Bangladesh from
Burma, a monk said.