Bangladesh sends back 70 Rohingya despite violence

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

BANGLADESH detained and forcibly returned 70 Rohingya migrants to Myanmar, police said on Sunday, just hours after Myanmarese troops on the other side of the border had opened fire on people fleeing the country.

Police intercepted the Rohingya late on Saturday after they crossed the "zero line" border zone, where Myanmar soldiers earlier fired mortars and machine guns at villagers making the dangerous dash from the northern state of Rakhine into Bangladesh.

The villagers were caught roughly four kilometres inside Bangladeshi territory en route to a refugee camp in Kutupalong, where thousands of Rohingya already live in squalid conditions, said local police chief Abul Khaer. "All 70 were detained and later pushed back to Myanmar by the border guards," M…