A tourist ship on Friday carried cattle, food, and essential commodities to St Martins Island ahead of next week鈥檚 Eid-ul-Azha.
The ship MV Baro Auliya departed Nunyarchhara jetty in Cox鈥檚 Bazar for St Martins in the morning carrying 150 people, along with five sacrificial cows donated by the district administration for local people and essential supplies.
Cox鈥檚 Bazar district鈥檚 additional magistrate, Yamin Hossain, said that the ship first reached Gholarchar in Teknaf before sailing to St Martins. Apart from carrying essential goods, the ship carried local residents stranded at district headquarters amid shelling from Myanmar, he said.
Earlier on Thursday, more than 200 people, mostly hotel employees, reached Teknaf from St Martins in three trawlers escorted by Border Guard Bangladesh personnel and Coast Guard, while some 300 people returned to the island.
Goods transport to and from St Martins island by trawlers and boats remained suspended for nearly a week due to repeated shelling from Myanmar on the Teknaf border, leading to a food crisis on the island.
More than 10,000 people were suffering due to a shortage of food as communication with the mainland remained suspended due to firing along the border from the Myanmar side, said local residents.
Magistrate Yamin said the supplies that reached the island on Friday should be enough to support the local people for one month.
If any further shortage was reported, the authorities would take appropriate measures, he said.聽
A tense situation has been prevailing along the border between Bandarban鈥檚 Naikhyangchari and Cox鈥檚 Bazar鈥檚 Teknaf amid fierce fighting, skirmishes, and gunfire between the armed forces of the military junta and insurgent groups inside Myanmar since February.
A Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya man were killed by a shell fired from Myanmar on February 5, while several others sustained injuries from a recent shellfire, prompting the evacuation of border village residents by the government.
Bangladeshi fisherman Hossain Ali, 48, who was injured by a bullet in the river Naf allegedly fired by the Myanmar armed group Arakan Army, died on May 28 while undergoing treatment at Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
