The Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) nowadays carry out money extortion business at the expense of the innocent Rohingya people all over Maungdaw Township like a legal licensed business, the locals say.

The police label arbitrary accusations against the people, harass, arrest and torture them for ransom. They plunder their properties. The similar illegal activities are being carried out with absolute impunity by the BGP in Buthidaung Township as well.

The following cases are some of the recent incidents of money extortions by the BGP.

Case #1: January 17

A group of 20 BGP personnel were on a patrol at Zeepin Chaung (Zeeyaung Khali) village in northern Maungdaw. The BGP team, in service under the battalion in Taung Pyo sub-Township, included the commander of the battalion as well.

Meanwhile, three of them arrived at the shop of a villager named U Musaa and grabbed away some biscuits, breads, cigarettes and other dry foods. After around 30 minutes, they arrived at the shop again to ask for the more dry foods. The shopkeeper fell asleep and so he was unable to open the shop’s door.

Therefore, having destroyed the door, they robbed Kyat 12,000 (Sales Money) and; Drinks and Dry foods worth Kyat 10,000.

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Case #2: January 19

Three Border Guard Police (BGP) personnel from Kyar Gaung Taung Camp carried out a raid in the cinema hall in the nearby village called Ye Kay Chaung Kwet Sun village around 11:30PM on January 18. The police are said to have picked up a Bangla phone in the cinema hall.

However, the next day, around 11:00AM, the police accused an innocent ‘Ye Kay Chaung Kwet Sun’ villager named Noor Amin of owning the phone and arrested him subsequently. The police demanded Kyat 500,000 for his release and at the end, having extorted Kyat 100,000, the police released him.

Similarly, some four members of the same BGP Camp arbitrarily held Mohammed Rafique, a 10-household-head, on his way back home and beat him up severely. Then, the police extorted two chickens from him for his release.

The BGP harasses the local Rohingyas in the region for ransom day in and day out.

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Case #3: January 17

A BGP patrol team (လွဳပ္ရွားမွဳးအဖဲြ႕) led by second lieutenant (ဗိုလ္ေလး) raided the village of Kyauk Pandu also known as Shitaaf in southern Maungdaw around 11:00PM on January 17. They arrested three innocent Rohingya villagers accusing them of human trafficking. The police released them around 4:00PM on January 18 after extorting 150,000 from them.

Earlier, in the same village, around 1:00PM of the same day, the lieutenant officer forced two Rohingyas to stop as they were travelling by their motorcycles. He abused them saying “I don’t want to see you, Kulars, riding motorcycles anymore.” And, he extorted Kyat 10,000 from each.

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Case #4: January 5

The Border Guard Police in Inn Din (Aan Daang) extorted Kyat 200,000 from each of the following people under the accusation of feeding the robber gang (*Abdul Hakim Dacoit Gang) on January 5.

Mv Jaabir (son of) Saleh

Mv Rahmat Ullah

Mv Sayed Ullah

Mv Rashid

MV Riyaaz (son of) Shobi

The Border Guard Police in cooperation with the village administrator, a Rakhine extremist, always harass the villagers for money.