Not only Rohingya Muslims but also Hindu Rohingyas have entered into Bangladesh from Myanmar fleeing shootings and arson attacks by Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist monks, sources said.
Puja Mollak, a Hindu Rohingya woman, who fled Myanmar on Monday, told the Daily Observer that Myanmar army and Buddhist monks burned down her house and slaughtered seven members of her family. She demanded international pressure on Myanmar to send them back to their motherland. She said her husband, a barber, was slaughtered in front of her eyes. They wanted to kill her but she fled.
Rakhine Buddhists wearing black masks descended on their village shouting, "Leave, or we will kill you all." She fled wearing a Muslim Burkha into Bangladesh. At least 430,000 Rohingyas have since fled into neighbouring Bangladesh to evade what the United Nations has called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
Of them 162 families of Hindus entered into Bangladesh from Myanmar, said Sujon Sarma chief of relief committee.
In late July, Rakhine residents of a large, mixed village in northern Rathedaung with hundreds of Rohingya inside their neighbourhood were blocked access to food and water.
Rohingya Muslims fleeing a Myanmar military offensive arrived in Bangladesh on Monday with fresh accounts of violence and arson as a rights group called for sanctions and an arms embargo to stop what the United Nations has branded ethnic cleansing.
The latest wave of violence in western Myanmar's Rakhine State began on August 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army camp, killing about 12 people.
Many of the refugees have spoken of ethnic Rakhine Buddhist civilians joining the Myanmar army in the attacks. Myanmar denies that and has blamed Muslim insurgents for the violence.
For decades of army battled autonomy-seeking Karen insurgents that sent more than 100,000 villagers fleeing to Thailand. The insurgents have now made peace.
Another 20 tonnes of Indonesian aid for Rohingya refugees has arrived in Bangladesh, taking the support from the Southeast Asian country to 77 tonnes so far.
Two aircraft carrying the aid landed at the southeastern city of Chittagong on Monday.
Chittagong Additional Deputy Commissioner Md Habibur Rahman received the aid on behalf of Bangladesh. The aid includes clothes, electricity generators, family kits and various foodstuffs.
A total of 250 tonnes of aid from five countries have made their way to Chittagong thus far following the latest Rohingya influx since late August.
Two Rohingyas, including a toddler, have been killed after wild elephants attacked a temporary encampment set up in the hills of Cox's Bazar.
The attack occurred in Ukhiya upazila early on Monday morning, said local police inspector Md Kae Kislu. The dead have been identified as Shamsul Alam, 55, and Syedul, 2, who had fled Myanmar.
Authorities in Cox's Bazar are setting up eight gruel kitchens to serve meals to the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees.
The kitchens will operate in the camps at Balukhali and Kutupalong from Tuesday, said Additional Executive Magistrate Khaled Mahmud, who has been heading the district administration's Rohingya cell.
Cooked meals will be handed out to refugees from 12 spots. The move aims to prevent a humanitarian crisis amid the ongoing exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, he said.
"The number of these kitchens is far lesser than what is needed but we will still run them in our effort to overcome this crisis. The kitchens will operate until all refugees are brought under a relief programme," said the magistrate.
Bangladesh has been facing a fresh wave of Rohingya refugees, who for the past three weeks have been trickling into the country.
