Shah Porir Dwip: Bangladeshi authorities have destroyed about 20 boats that ferried Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar, accusing smugglers of using the huge exodus to bring methamphetamine into the country.

Refugees told Reuters that border guards also beat and arrested passengers and crew as they landed at Shah Porir Dwip, on the southern tip of Bangladesh on Tuesday night, before the vessels were smashed to pieces by locals.

The local commander of Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), Lieutenant Colonel Ariful Islam, denied there were beatings, and said the action was a crackdown on human trafficking and the smuggling of methamphetamine, a drug known locally as ‘Yaba’.

‘The boats are trying to carry passengers they are not supposed to,’ he told Reuters.

He accused the organisers of the boat journeys of exploiting destitute Rohingyas by charging them for the short trip to Bangladesh. Some passengers told Reuters they had paid 10,000 Bangladeshi taka ($123) each for the trip, although others said they travelled free.

More than half a million Rohingya Muslims have arrived in Bangladesh from predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since its armed forces responded to attacks by militants on Aug. 25 with a counteroffensive described by United Nations officials as ‘ethnic cleansing’.

While four passengers told Reuters they saw no drugs on board, Lieutenant Colonel Islam said border guards had found a large quantity of the drugs in the water on Tuesday night.

‘Maybe the carrier had dropped it before disembarking,’ he said.

Smashed with sledgehammers

At a teeming processing centre in nearby Teknaf, Ibrahim Holil, from the village of Maungdaw Moknibara in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, described on Wednesday how he said he was hit with a stick by a border guard as he helped his relatives disembark from their boat.

‘There is nothing in this boat. Only our belongings,’ he said.

Farous Ahmad, 65, said his two sons - Sura Ahammed and Dildar Ahammed - were arrested soon after they landed. He said they had worked as crew on the trip because they had no money to pay the fare.

‘They also beat me everywhere. I do not know where my sons are,’ he told Reuters. ‘I don’t know why the BGB arrested my sons. People told me the BGB would shelter us in Bangladesh but yet they arrested them and also we had to spend the whole night sitting.’

Asked about the allegations of beatings, Lieutenant Colonel Islam said: ‘It is never possible. Please check your source and motive.’

Reuters reporters saw the remnants of the smashed boats. Nearby was a pile of sledgehammers and machetes.

A local fisherman, Robi Alam, said the BGB had given local people money to destroy the boats.