A gang of Rakhine extremists severely beat up an innocent Rohingya man in Pauktaw Township on March 3, which the local Rohingyas consider to be none other than a racist attack, a reliable source said.

The victim is identified to be ‘U Nisar Ahmed (son of) U Othman’ hails from ‘Sin Htet Maw (Sandama)’ village Pauktaw Township.

The Rakhine extremists stopped and abused him using many racist slangs on his way back from seeing off his relative to his home in a nearby Anauk Ywek (Ana Raing) across a Rakhine village. Then, they started beating him up in gang and injured him severely.

The victim said “I was on my way back home across ‘Sin Ainn’ village after seeing my brother-in-law off to his village around 5:00PM. Meanwhile, I encountered five Rakhine (Magh) extremists. They asked me where I was coming from. When I replied ‘Anauk Ywek village,’ they started using racist slurs for no reason at all: ‘you mother-f**king *Kulars. We don’t want to see your faces. What if we kill you now? Who will take action against us?’

Then, they started punching on my face continuously. They started beating me up in gang. Hence, I started running away from them in order to escape from a life-threatening situation towards an embankment nearby. I found out a hideout there. I hid myself there.

And they didn’t look for me anymore. They went back to their village ‘Sin Ain.’”

Later, U Nisar Ahmed came back to his village ‘Sin Htet Maw’ and lodged a complaint at the village administration office. However, the village’s administrator, U Ba Tun, didn’t bother to take any action on it. There are many cases such as the attacks on Rohingyas by Rakhine extremists but no authority has taken any action on them.

However, if Rohingyas respond and try to defend themselves, the authority and the armed forces take severe actions against Rohingyas according to the local Rohingyas.

The ‘Sin Ain’ village is a Rakhine village located between two Rohingya villages: ‘Sin Htet Maw and Anauk Ywek (Ana Raing).’ Most of the Rakhines settled in the village illegally migrating from Bangladesh post the then General Ne Win and post 1990s.

*Kular= a Derogatory term used against anyone of Indian Descends in Myanmar (Burma). It has become widely used racist slang against Muslims in the country especially after June 2012 violence.