Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar turned away by B’desh

Multiple boats packed with Rohingya refugees, fleeing violence in Myanmar, were turned back by Bangladesh border guards on Monday, despite appeals by the country’s opposition to provide shelter to the persecuted Muslim minority.

Thousands of desperate Rohingya from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state have flooded over the border into Bangladesh in the last week, bringing with them horrifying claims of gangrape, torture and murder at the hands of Myanmar’s security forces.

Eight boats attempting to cross the Naf river, separating Rakhine from southern Bangladesh, were pushed back on Monday, after six were refused entry on Sunday, head of the board guards in the Bangladeshi frontier town of Teknaf, Colonel Abuzar Al Zahid, said.

In the past two weeks, Bangladeshi border guards have prevented more than 1,000 Rohingya, including women and children, from entering the country by boat, officials said.

Bangladesh’s main opposition leader Khaleda Zia 

late Sunday joined a growing chorus of political parties and hardline Islamist groups in the Muslim majority country calling for the Rohingya to be given shelter.