Bangladeshi Youth Arrested With Counterfeit Kyat Notes in Burma

Takaloo
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Maungdaw: A Bangladeshi youth was arrested by Burmese border guard force Nasaka with counterfeit 5,000 kyat notes last Thursday in Maungdaw on the border in western Burma's Arakan State, said a police sergeant.

"The youth was arrested with more than 20 counterfeit 5,000 kyat notes by Nasaka personnel in a restaurant in Maungdaw last Thursday," the sergeant told Narinjara on condition of anonymity.

Issak was said to have been arrested by Nasaka forces who happened to be nearby and became suspicious after he paid the restaurant with one of the fake notes. He is now being detained in Kyikan Pyin Nasaka Headquarters in Maungdaw.

Cross-border traders told Narinjara that the counterfeit 5,000 kyat notes are in wide circulation on the western Burmese border and they have to exercise caution when receiving notes during trading.

"We have been finding the fake notes quite often at the moment, especially the 5,000 kyat notes. If we are careless we suffer the losses, as they are usually coming mixed in with the real currency. So we have to ensure we don't receive or pay the notes," said money exchanger from Maungdaw.

"It is quite easy to differentiate the real and the fake ones, but we have to rub it with our finger tips properly. The real ones are thin and smooth while the fake ones are thick and rough," he added.

According to traders from Burma, the fake notes usually come in with the traders who have exchanged their money in Bangladesh, as well as with Bangladeshi traders who come to Bangladesh for business.

Similarly, forged 500 taka notes are also in wide circulation across the Bangladesh - Burma border area, and for Burmese it is very difficult to distinguish the fake notes from the real ones.

The cross-border money exchangers explained that some fake 500 taka notes are quite difficult to identify. The fake notes can be determined after closely checking the silver flat ropes bearing words in the Bengali language, which are embedded on the right side of the real notes. Such silver ropes are not present in the fake notes, which simply have silver lines printed on the surface of the notes in the same location.

According to Bangladesh media, during the past month one Filipino woman, one Nigerian man, and one Bangladesh man were arrested by local authorities in Gulshan, a diplomatic quarter in Dhaka, for forging Bangladesh currency and US dollars.

Narinjara