Frightened and angry Rohingya refugees on Thursday forced Bangladesh to call off efforts to start sending back some of the hundreds of thousands of the stateless Muslims to Myanmar, casting fresh doubt on a disputed repatriation programme.
Hundreds staged a demonstration near the Myanmar border shouting "we will not go" on the day the first batch were due to be sent back.
More than 720,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar's Rakhine state into Bangladesh after a military crackdown in August 2017 that the UN has said calls for a genocide investigation.
Many brought horrific tales of murder, rape and razed villages and vowed never to return.
Not one of the first 150 Rohingya meant to cross back Thursday under an accord with Myanmar turned up nor wanted to return, acknowledged Bangladesh authorities, under pressure from the United Nations and aid groups.
Community leaders said many on a Bangladesh repatriation list of 2,260 people had gone into hiding.
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Bangladesh's refugee commissioner went to a border transit point for the scheduled handover. But no Rohingya were present to be put on a bus across the river that marks the frontier.
At a special camp near the transit point, five buses were waiting to carry volunteers to the border.
About 1,000 Rohingya men, women and children took part in the demonstration against repatriations, shouting "we want justice".
Tajul Mulluk, 85, who is on the repatriation list, said: "They killed two of my sons. I escaped to Bangladesh with two others. Please don't send us back. They will kill the rest of my family. I am too old to flee the camp."
The United Nations had urged Bangladesh to suspend the programme, with rights chief Michelle Bachelet saying it would be like "throwing them back to the cycle of human rights violations that this community has been suffering for decades."
"If we get anyone willing to go, we will carry them to the border point with respect and dignity."
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