Landmines trap Rohingya in no-man's land

Rohingya stumble on landmines allegedly planted by Myanmar's army on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border as they flee Rakhine state.

Rohingya man passes a child over a barbed wire border fence near Maungdaw on the border with Bangladesh on August 28, 2017.
AFP

Rohingya man passes a child over a barbed wire border fence near Maungdaw on the border with Bangladesh on August 28, 2017.

Azizul Haque died in a Bangladeshi hospital on Thursday a week after his body was injured by a landmine he stepped on as he and his Rohingya Muslim family fled Myanmar.

The 15-year-old lost both his legs in the blast near the border. 

Myanmar is one of the last countries in the world to actively use landmines.

The explosion, cuts and shrapnel wounds across most of his body had left Haque in agony. 

The youth remained in a desperate state despite several operations and an administrator at a charity hospital in Cox's Bazar, focus of the mounting Rohingya refugee crisis, confirmed Haque passed away there early on Thursday.

His brother was also injured in the blast but joined the family when they went to the hospital to collect the body.

AFP

Rohingya Muslim refugee Rashida Begum (L) stands next to her son Azizul Hoque, 15, as he is treated after being injured by a landmine while crossing from Myanmar to Bangladesh, at a hospital in Coxs Bazar.

The family are among almost 400,000 Rohingya Muslims who have sought refuge in Bangladesh from violence in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar's Rakhine state that started on August 25.

AFP

Rohingya Muslim refugee Sadekun Nahar, 50, is tended to by her son as she is treated in hospital, after being injured by a landmine while crossing from Myanmar to Bangladesh

Senior Bangladeshi officials believe anti-personnel mines, which were banned by a 1997 global treaty, have been planted by Myanmar security forces to prevent Rohingya from trying to return to their villages.

Reuters

A Rohingya refugee holds on to a child as they walk to the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, on September 10, 2017.

"Since September 3, we have heard at least 12 landmine explosions. At least three people were killed and seven were injured in the blasts," Border Guard Bangladesh Commander Manzurul Hasan Khan said.

Haque's is the fourth-known such death.

AP

Relatives rush a woman to a hospital, near the border town of Kutupalong, Bangladesh on September 4, 2017. The Rohingya woman encountered a landmine that blew off her right leg.

"All indications point to the Myanmar security forces deliberately targeting locations that Rohingya refugees use as crossing points," said Tirana Hassan of Amnesty international.

"This a cruel and callous way of adding to the misery of people fleeing a systematic campaign of persecution," she said.

TRT World and Agencies

Rohingya refugees stand outside their temporary shelters at no-mans land between the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, as Myanmar soldiers walk past a fence in Maungdaw, Myanmar on September 9, 2017.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday called on Myanmar to end to the crackdown on the Rohingya, as UN chief Antonio Guterres said the military campaign amounted to an ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.

Reuters

Wounded Rohingya refugees are treated at the Coxs Bazar District Sadar Hospital in Bangladesh.

The 1.1-million strong Rohingya have suffered years of discrimination in Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship even though many have long roots in the country.

Border guards let Haque's family enter when they carried the stricken boy to the fence

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