Cox’s Bazaar:  Bangladesh Rifles, the country’s border security force arrested three monks coming back home from Burma in Teknaf Town, opposite Burma’s Maungdaw, on November 2 after they arrived in town on board a small ferry boat.

The arrested monks have been identified as U Nadiya (17) U Painya Thiha (18) and U Nada Ka (17). All are reportedly from the Chittagong Hill Tract in Bangladesh.

The three were arrested by Bangladesh Rifles, as they could not speak Bengali fluently, a monk on the border said.

The three monks had been detained in an interrogation cell by Nasaka, Burma’s border security force in Maungdaw for at least two days after being arrested in Burma.

Later, Nasaka forces sent them back to Bangladesh on a small ferry boat. They were then arrested by Bangladesh Rifles soon after they arrived at the border town of Teknaf from Maundaw.

The Bangladesh police produced the three monks before a judge in Cox’s Bazaar district court on Saturday, and they were charged with illegally crossing over into Burma , an eyewitness said.

Relatives of monks’ from Chittagong , however, arrived in Cox’s Bazaar town yesterday evening with documents and government certificates to prove the identity of the monks.

Many monks belonging to Bangladesh have returned home recently from Burma after the Burmese authorities barred monks from studying in monasteries in Sittwe and Rangoon.

On 2 October, 11 monks arrived in Bangladesh from Burma . On 4 October, four monks arrived and on 24 October, 12 monks arrived in Bangladesh from Burma, a monk said.