No money, no bury in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Two Rohingya dead bodies -struck by thunder- were not allowed to bury by police without paying money to them on April 21 in Maungdaw Township, according to village administration office member.

“Ms.Tahera Begum, 48 and Ms.Formina Begum,14 hail from Mutee village of Theechang (Balu Khali) village track under Taungbro , Maungdaw  Township, were  struck by thunder (lightning)  while working in their chili cultivation field near the village and died in the spot on April 21 at about 10:30 am.”

“But, U Kyaw Win, the assistant police inspector from Theechaung police outpost, went to the victim house with Theechang village administration officer U Abdul Rashid at about 12:00 noon on that day and the police officer asked 100,000 kyats to give permission to bury the dead body in the village.”

The two females are mother and daughter of U Nurul Zawman, a poorest family in the village. The police officer had pretended to take dead body to the morgue for autopsy as Nurul can’t able to pay the money to the police officer. But, the villagers collected the money from village and gave to the police officer for burying the dead body in the village graveyard, said a closed relative of Nurul. 

One of Nurul’s daughter- Rozena Begum, 15 month old was  also seriously injure for thunder and now she has been taking medical treatment in the Taungbro clinic.

“The police in northern Arakan need money from Rohingya community and they are watching how to extort money from any accident which is naturally or manmade,” said a teacher from that village.