Tourist vessel service suspended on Teknaf-St Martin route

Staff Reporter :
The authority concerned has suspended the movement of all types of water vessels including tourist cruise-ship service on the Teknaf-Saint Martin route due to the tension in Myanmar border for indefinite period.
“No tourist cruise ship will ply on the Teknaf-Saint Martin route as it is decided by the government. The suspension of the movement of all water vessels will continue until further notice,” Acting Teknaf UNO Erfanur Haque confirmed the news to this correspondent on Monday.
Prime Minister’s Office has instructed to suspend the tourist cruise ship services on the Teknaf-Saint Martin route for indefinite period until further order, an official preferring anonymity in the Department of Shipping (DoS) told The New Nation.
The tourist ship service on the Teknaf-Saint Martin route has been suspended to avoid any untoward situation as the Teknaf-Myanmar border is tensed.
The government has decided that tourist ships will now ply from Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar to Saint Martin.
Recently, residents of Teknaf feel the heat after fighting between Myanmar junta forces and separatists shifted to a location close to the Teknaf region from Gumdhum border in Bandarban.
On September 18, Myanmar Ambassador to Bangladesh Aung Kyaw Moe was summoned by the Foreign Ministry in Dhaka for the fourth time over the recent incidents of firing along the borders.
Dhaka reiterated its “deep concern” over mortar shelling, indiscriminate aerial firing in the bordering areas, and air space violations.
On September 16, a 17-year-old-Rohingya boy named Mohammad Iqbal was killed, and six others were injured as a mortar shell fired by the Myanmar army exploded at the Zero Point Rohingya Camp close to the international border in Tombru.
Another youth named Anganthowai Tanchangya was injured in a landmine explosion along Tombru border the same day.
Bangladesh has repeatedly asked Myanmar to keep fighting within the country’s border, saying that Dhaka will lodge complaints with the UN in this regard if such kind of activities escalates further.