Nowadays, Myanmar’s military and Border Guard Police (BGP) has been increasingly harassing and torturing innocent Rohingyas in southern Maungdaw for ransom, locals say.

Earlier, the military and the BGP have committed serious crimes against the innocent Rohingyas in northern Maungdaw such as arbitrary arrests, detentions and extra-judicial killings. And now, it has been shifting gradually towards southern Maungdaw to paralyze the people over there, according to the sources.

“Around 10PM Tuesday night, a patrol team of around 11 military personnel entered the Maggyi Chaung (Faatonza) hamlet of Padin village tract, southern Maungdaw. Meanwhile, some four Rohingyas chatting by a village street encountered the military patrol team. They held the youths and severely beat them. They kept beating the youths until they (youths) agreed to pay the military Kyat 40,000 each for their releases.

The victims are:

1) Mohammed (son of) Khalu, 20

2) Nurul Amin (son of) Yunose, 22

3) Jaabir (son of) Ayub, 18

4) Abdul Amin (son of) Abdul Aziz, 25″ said Khan, a Rohingya in the region.

In a separate incident, a Border Guard Police patrol team from Regional Commandment Area 5 has tortured five Rohingya people on guard at night in Alay Than Kyaw village, southern Maungdaw.

An elderly Rohingya said asking not to be named “a BGP team arrived at Haanfu Fara hamlet of Alay Than Kyaw (Haisshu Rata) village tract around 10:00 PM on October 21. They accused the five on guard at night of sleeping and started torturing them. They stopped torturing them only after extorting Kyat 40,000 from each. They are:

1) Noormaal Hakim (son of) Basa Meah, 65

2) Noor Amin (son of) Abul Hashim, 30

3) Abdul Amin (son of) Abul Hashim, 28

4) Shomshu (son of) Abul Kasim, 28

5) Abdullah (son of) Rashidullah, 32

Likewise, they harrassed and beat Shabbir (son of) Nabi Hussein, 35, asking who was guarding his fishery pool at night. The police asked him ‘what are you doing here at night?’ They stopped beating after robbing his money. It was Kyat 35,000.”

Earlier, the Border Guard Police arrested seven innocent Rohingyas for no reason at all. They are reported to be still being been tortured in the detention. Read the report here: 6 Innocent Rohingyas Arrested by Border Guard Police to be Imprisoned