Rohingya Refugee Hamid Hossain Injured by Landmine in Arakan Army-Controlled Border Territory

Rohingya Refugee Hamid Hossain Injured by Landmine in Arakan Army-Controlled Border Territory

A Rohingya refugee from Kutupalong was seriously injured by a landmine on 1 October 2026 inside Arakan, in territory controlled by the Arakan Army (AA) near the Bangladesh border. The incident adds to mounting concern over landmine casualties along areas of the frontier that have come under AA control and over the continuing insecurity facing Rohingya civilians on both sides of the border.

The injured man was identified as Hamid Hossain Sundari, son of the late Kalam Hossain and a resident of C-27 Block of the registered Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Ukhiya. According to Border Guard Bangladesh, the explosion occurred at approximately 3:30 p.m., around two kilometres north of border pillar BRM-19 and approximately 250 yards west of the zero line, inside Myanmar. Hamid survived the explosion and managed to cross back into Bangladesh while injured.

Injured Inside AA-Controlled Territory

The location of the incident is important. Contemporary reporting identifies the area where the explosion occurred as territory controlled by the Arakan Army. The AA has gained control of most of the Myanmar side of the Bangladesh frontier following its military advances against the Myanmar armed forces. Hamid was therefore injured not in an area presently administered by the Myanmar military but inside territory under AA control.

BGB personnel and local residents assisted Hamid after he crossed back into Bangladesh. He was initially taken to the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital at Kutupalong and was subsequently referred to Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital for advanced treatment. His injury demonstrates how the militarization of the frontier continues to place Rohingya civilians at risk even after control of substantial parts of northern Arakan has shifted from the Myanmar military to the AA.

AA Landmine Deployment

Hamid's injury occurred amid repeated allegations that the Arakan Army has planted landmines along sections of the Bangladesh–Arakan frontier. A detailed investigation by Prothom Alo reports that Bangladeshi government officials and local representatives believe the AA has laid large numbers of mines in border areas. According to those sources, one suspected purpose has been preventing members of Rohingya armed organizations that are fighting the AA from crossing into territory under its control. The AA has denied laying mines along the border.

The allegations are significant because civilians rather than armed combatants have repeatedly become casualties. Retired Major Emdadul Islam, formerly head of the Bangladesh Mission in Sittwe, told Prothom Alo that although many mines in the wider border region originated with the Myanmar military, the AA is also believed to be laying mines because of its conflict with Rohingya armed groups. He emphasized that ordinary civilians make up most of those injured in border explosions.

Rohingya Civilians Bear the Consequences

AA`s conspiracy makes ordinary Rohingya civilians legitimate targets. Mines do not distinguish between an armed fighter and a refugee crossing a familiar path, a fisherman approaching the Naf River, a farmer searching for livelihood or a civilian attempting to reach relatives.

This makes the reported use of mines particularly alarming for Rohingya communities. Measures intended to restrict the movement of armed organizations can create indiscriminate danger for a much larger civilian population. A device placed today can remain active long after the military circumstances that led to its placement have disappeared. Hamid's injury is therefore not merely an individual accident. It illustrates the civilian consequences of turning the borderlands of northern Arakan into mined military terrain.

A Pattern of Death and Permanent Disability

Today's explosion forms part of a wider pattern. Reporting based on BGB data says that more than 40 landmine explosions occurred at different points along the Ukhiya, Teknaf and Naikhongchhari frontier between 1 January 2025 and 1 October 2026. At least five people, including a BGB member, were reportedly killed, while more than 42 others were injured or left disabled.

The consequences frequently last for life. Prothom Alo documented border residents who lost legs and livelihoods after mine explosions. Families already living in poverty were pushed into deeper hardship by medical expenses and the loss of their principal income earners. One documented case involved a young man killed while collecting crabs near the Naf River; other victims survived with permanent disabilities.

The danger is therefore both immediate and long-term. A mine explosion can kill within seconds, but a survivor who loses a limb may face decades of disability, unemployment and medical costs.

From Myanmar Military Mines to a New Armed Authority

Landmine contamination along the frontier did not begin with the Arakan Army. The Myanmar military has a documented history of mine use in the border region, including during earlier periods of Rohingya displacement. Any historical account must preserve that fact rather than attributing every existing mine to whichever armed organization currently controls the territory.

What has changed is territorial authority. The AA now controls extensive areas of northern Arakan and much of the frontier facing Bangladesh. With territorial control comes responsibility for civilian protection, including identifying dangerous areas, warning civilians about known contamination and preventing new indiscriminate threats.

Where mines have been inherited from earlier Myanmar military positions, the AA should identify and clear them where possible. Where allegations concern mines newly laid by AA forces, those allegations require transparent investigation. Continuing civilian casualties make silence or denial inadequate as a protection policy.

Rohingya Concerns Under AA Rule

The landmine issue also arises within a wider atmosphere of deep Rohingya concern about their treatment under the emerging authority of the Arakan Army. Rohingya communities have experienced generations of persecution under Myanmar governments and military administrations, and the transfer of territorial control to another armed authority has not automatically produced confidence that their security, citizenship and equal rights will be protected.

The AA presents itself as a movement seeking self-determination for Arakan, but its conduct toward the Rohingya population will be one of the principal tests of the political order it seeks to establish. Control of territory creates responsibilities toward all civilians living in or originating from that territory, not only members of the Rakhine Buddhist majority.

A border environment in which Rohingya civilians risk losing limbs to hidden explosives is incompatible with the conditions required for safe and dignified return.

Landmines and the Prospect of Rohingya Repatriation

Bangladesh continues to host a vast Rohingya refugee population whose long-term future remains unresolved. Any meaningful discussion of return to Arakan must therefore include the physical condition of the territory to which refugees would return.

Citizenship, political rights and protection from persecution remain fundamental, but physical safety is equally necessary. Refugees cannot rebuild communities if roads, forests, agricultural fields and border approaches are contaminated by explosive devices.

Hamid's injury demonstrates this problem in immediate human terms. His camp lies only a short distance from his homeland, yet crossing the frontier exposes him to a landscape shaped by armed conflict and hidden explosives.

AA Responsibility Require Investigation

There is substantial reason to investigate AA responsibility for recent mine contamination seriously. Bangladeshi officials, local representatives and security analysts have publicly attributed at least some recent border mine-laying to the organization, and today's casualty occurred inside territory controlled by the AA.

Older devices laid by Myanmar forces can remain active after territory changes hands. The AA also denies laying border mines. Rohipedia should therefore distinguish between the documented fact of AA territorial control, the documented allegations that AA forces have recently laid mines, and the still-unresolved attribution of the specific device that injured Hamid. This distinction does not diminish the seriousness of the incident. It identifies precisely what must be investigated.

Protection of Rohingya Civilians Must Be Central

Regardless of which force originally placed an individual device, an authority exercising territorial control cannot treat civilian mine casualties as somebody else's problem. Known contaminated areas should be marked, civilians should receive clear warnings, mine-risk information should be made available in the Rohingya language, and humanitarian organizations should be permitted to assess and eventually clear dangerous areas.

The AA's treatment of Rohingya civilians will also be judged by whether it regards them as people entitled to equal protection in Arakan. Military confrontation with Rohingya armed organizations cannot justify policies that expose the broader Rohingya population to indiscriminate harm.

The distinction between combatants and civilians must remain fundamental.

Conclusion

The explosion that injured Hamid Hossain Sundari on 1 October 2026 occurred inside Arakan Army-controlled territory along a frontier where Bangladeshi officials and local representatives have increasingly alleged that the AA is deploying landmines. Hamid survived and crossed back into Bangladesh, where BGB personnel, residents and medical workers assisted him.

His injury should not be viewed as an isolated accident. It belongs to a growing pattern of mine explosions that have killed, maimed and impoverished civilians along the Arakan–Bangladesh frontier. For Rohingya, the incident raises an especially serious question. They have already experienced decades of persecution, displacement and denial of belonging under successive Myanmar governments. A change in the armed authority controlling northern Arakan must not simply replace one form of insecurity with another.

If the Arakan Army intends to govern territory containing the Rohingya homeland, protection of Rohingya civilians must be measured through conduct rather than declarations. That includes investigating allegations of mine deployment, warning civilians about contaminated areas, facilitating clearance and ensuring that military measures directed against armed opponents do not expose an entire civilian population to hidden explosives.

Hamid's shattered safety at the border is therefore also a warning about the future of Arakan: no political authority can credibly promise peace while civilians continue to encounter landmines on the ground beneath them.