UN sources claimed on Friday around 38,000 Rohingya people crossed into Bangladesh from neighbouring Myanmar in the last one week since the fresh escalation of violence there.
The United Nations sources working in Bangladesh’s southern district of Cox’s Bazar made the claim.
The estimate comes a week after Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army base in Rakhine state, prompting clashes and a military counteroffensive.
On the other hand, 16 more dead bodies of Rohingya people were found floating in the Naf river at Teknaf on Friday.
Police recovered the bodies from the river at Jhimongkhali in Howaikong Union and Sah Parir Dwip at Sabrang Union on early Friday, said Teknaf Police Station OC Md Mainuddin Khan.
Among the deceased, there are 11 men, three women and two children.
Teknaf police were working to ascertain the cause of their death, said OC Mainuddin.
“Some of the bodies have started to smell. It’s possible they were killed two to three days ago.”
Another 23 dead bodies of Rohingyas were recovered from the Naf river in the past two days.
Some of them reportedly drowned after the boats they were using to cross the border into Bangladesh capsized, police said.
Meanwhile, eight more Rohingyas were admitted to a hospital in Bangladesh with bullet wounds.
Their relatives and police brought them to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) after they crossed the border on Thursday midnight.
Of them, seven have suffered bullet wounds. The group included a child, said ASI Alauddin of the police outpost at CMCH.
They are among 33 Rohingyas, stateless Muslims in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, who were brought to the hospital, said ASI Alauddin. Of them, two succumbed to their wounds, he said.
The tension engulfing the Rohingyas, stateless Muslim minorities in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, reached new heights after scores were killed in coordinated attacks on Myanmar police and army posts launched by Muslim insurgents last week.
A clearance operation against “extremist terrorists” was underway in Rakhine state, according to the Myanmar army.
