Local people say that today (Saturday) at around 6.30 am, Halima Begum had gone to work in her vegetable field. She found a mortar shell there and took it home. Locals said it was an “unexploded mortar shell” and was discarded on Tumbru Road. Later, members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) of Tumbru Border Observation Post (BOP) placed red flags on both sides of the mortar shell on the roadside.
While visiting the site at 9:30 am on Saturday, a mortar shell was seen lying on the road surrounded by bamboo and red flags. People are using the old road on one side as an alternative route to travel by battery-powered and CNG-powered auto-rickshaws. The vegetable patch on which the mortar shell was found is about 15 to 20 meters away from the Myanmar border. On the other side of the border is the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) Tumbru Right Camp.
Local people say that the rebel Arakan Army had captured the camp at around 5 pm on February 2. On the same day, 68 BGP members fled for their lives and crossed the border into Bangladesh.