BANGLADESH’S border on swaths of forests with Myanmar continues to be a killing ground because of landmines planted on the Myanmar side allegedly by the rebel Arakan Army that is said to be controlling the southern Rakhine State, leaving no presence of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police there. In the latest incident that took place on May 24, at least three Bangladeshis died in a landmine explosion on the Myanmar side at Ghumdhum of Naikhyongchari in Bandarban. They died after they had gone there to collect firewood along the zero line about noon, the Border Guard Bangladesh in Cox’s Bazar has said. When the Bangladesh border guards reached the spot, they found the villagers already dead. The border force says that all the three were from the Chakma community. One victim triggered a landmine, it is reported, whilst working on a banana plantation and the two others were killed by subsequent explosions whilst they tried a rescue attempt. Much of the border spanning 271 kilometres with Myanmar is unmarked and many villagers almost daily cross the border, as people living there have done for generations, collecting firewood, doing rubber plantation work and carrying out small-scale trading for livelihood.
Border guards say that areas bordering Myanmar now risk landmine explosions. Myanmar is regarded as the world’s most dangerous country for landmine casualties, as the International Campaign to Ban Landmines says. The organisation has documented the ‘massive’ and growing use of landmines, which are banned by many states. In such a situation, Bangladeshis and Rohingyas sheltered there continue to lose their life and limbs to landmine explosions on the Myanmar side along the border. A young man was injured in an explosion near the border at Kutupalong of Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar in March 2026. A Border Guard Bangladesh member died in another explosion in November 2025. It is reported that he died from the injuries that he had sustained after a landmine tore off his leg during a routine border patrol. Some civilians, including villagers collecting firewood, lost limbs in frequent landmine explosions towards the end of 2025. The Border Guard Bangladesh says that it regularly carries out awareness programmes to discourage people from going along the zero line. But the continuing landmine explosions and the consequent casualties and injury suggest that the steps are far from adequate. The situation warrants that the Border Guard Bangladesh should step up its moves to head off any such casualties or injury from landmine explosions.
The Border Guard Bangladesh should conduct regular mine-sweeping operations, put up prominent landmine cautionary signboards and erect red flags in high-risk areas whilst the force should enhance its awareness campaigns to discourage people from crossing into Myanmar.
