Rakhine extremists plot to launch terror attacks on Muslim Rohingyas during the forthcoming Eid Festival. 

The Rakhine extremists in various townships in Arakan state are posing threats to the local Rohingyas that they will attack and kill them (the Rohingyas) during the Eid Festival (on which Muslims sacrifice animals and perform pilgrimages in Makkah city).

“The Rakhine extremists in the townships such as Kyauktaw, Minbya, Myebon, Akyab (Sittwe), Rathedaung, Buthidaung, Maungdaw are saying ‘Bengalis (referring us) will kill animals and we will kill them’ said a worried local Rohingya in Buthdaung.

Since recently, the locals have been spotting some stranger Rakhines suspected to be militants from Arakan Army (AA) roaming in Buthidaung and Maungdaw.

They are been being encountered in many villages in northern and southern Maungdaw, in Taung Pyo sub-township and in the downtown and northern villages in Buthidaung.

Sometimes, they roam around and carry out their activities in the uniforms of Border Guard Police in northern Maungdaw. And at night, they hold meetings in the Buddhist monasteries and the Rakhine villas and do the plotting.

“We are worried seeing their terror plots,” said an elderly Rohingya in Maungdaw.

Besides, early this month, Myanmar’s military seized piles of lethal weapons and arms from the Rakhine Buddhist monastery named ‘Hle Myat Nar Zaydi’ at Zaydi Taung hamlet of Kachcha Pek Kan Pyin village in Buthidaung Township.

 Myanmar’s military and Border Guard Police (BGP) have been committing rapes against Rohingya women in Buthidaung Township since recently.

The armed forces (the military and the BGP) have been committing the rapes against the women at their gun-points especially in the village of ‘Phaya Pyin Aung Pha.’ Partnering with the armed forces in the crimes are the administrator of the village, Maung Chan Thar (a Rakhine extremist), and his collaborator named Mr. Kasim.

“Every day, the administrator of ‘Phaya Pyin Aung Pha’ village, Maung Chan Thar, the military base at the office of the village administration and the BGP from ‘Nyaung Chaung’ Camp raid the resident of poor man named Mr. A (not the full name) at quarter 1 in the village. They force the man out of his house and rape his daughter Ms. T (not the full name).

Due to the continuous and constant rapes by them, Ms. has now become like a prostitute,” said a local in the village in a worrisome tone.

“When the neighbors try to prevent, they are threatened to be killed or be arrested. Therefore, they are too helpless,” he added.

Similarly, Ms. Z (daughter of) Mr. AB hails from quarter 8 of ‘Phaya Pyin Aung Pha’ village had flee her home as she was unable to bear up often getting raped by the military and the Border Guard Police.

Besides, they are attempting to rape Daw Sarah Khatun (daughter of) Mr. Sanaullah hails from the same place. However, she is still saved.

On the other hand, the BGP from Nyaung Chaung Camp arbitrarily arrest local Rohingyas on pretext of possessing ‘illegal Bangla Phones’ and beat them for ransom.

Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) has started to carry out surprise raids in Rohingya villages in Maungdaw Township since past few weeks.

During the raids, the BGP beat the Rohingya people, loot the valuable properties from their homes and extort money from them on arbitrary accusations. The raids have been being conducted as the punitive actions by the authorities as the Rohingya people refuse to accept the ‘Green Cards, Application of Citizenship Consideration/Verification.’

[Application of Citizenship Consideration/Verification known as Green Card (not to be mistaken with anything equivalent to US’ Green Card) is a temporary stay permit with two-year validity for the people whose applications for citizenship being verified. The Myanmar authorities are issuing the cards to the Rohingyas by force accusing them of being illegal immigrants (on their own land).]

The Border Guard Police under the commandment area (နယ္ေျမ) Base 5 in ‘Ngakura (Nagpura) village, northern Maungdaw, is conducting surprise raids in the Rohingya villages in the regions day and night. The police accuse them of the innocent villagers of possessing Bangla mobile phones and beat them for ransom money.

“The BGP under commandment area 5 raid our homes almost every day. Of them, there is a seven-member-BGP Squad. They conduct raids in Dudan (Ludain) village day and night. They beat and torture people to extort money from them.

And they have accused following innocent people having Bangala phones in Dudan village. They have tortured them and extorted money from them since July 15 although they have not found anything illegal in their homes during the raids.

No.	Name	Father	Age	Amount Extorted	Date	Remarks
1	Osman	Aamir Hussein	25	Kyat 200,000	July 15
2	Sayed Ahmed	Mohammed Amin	30	Kyat 200,000	July 15
3	Irfan	Mohammed Shariff	24	Kyat 300,000	August 9
4	Mustafa	Noor Ahmed	42	Kyat 300,000	August 29
5	Kabir Ahmed	Mohammed Hassan	28	Kyat 100,000	August 29	Kyat 300,000 extorted on July 5 too
6	Mohammed Ullah	Habiullah	26	Kyat 300,000	August 29	Robbed from Cash Counter of his shop.

They beat and inhumanely torture people upon the encounters. They are doing it possibly in the absence of the knowledge of their higher officers,” said a local Rohingya in the region.

They also take away the motor cycles belong to Rohingyas by force and return them only when they are broken. One of the seven-member BGP Squad is extremely brutal. He says “when I can torture you, *Kulars, using my own hands and legs, I get extreme pleasures,” according to the local Rohingya.

Similarly, the Border Guard Police under the command area (နယ္ေျမ) 7 in northern Maungdaw raid surrounding Rohingya villages and arbitrarily arrest the people for ransom.

“On July 26 night, BGP from Commandment Area 7 raided Rohingya villages such as Wachcha, Saindar (Thandar) and Laambaguna (Zawmadat) in southern Maungdaw.

During the raid in Zawmadat village, around 3:00AM, they found out three guests were staying at the house of Mr. Ziyabul Hoque, 30. All the three guests obtained the guest-permits to stay his home from the village administration. Yet, the BGP arrested them and took them to their detention cell in their camp in Alay Than Kyaw (Haishshu Rata), Commandment Area 7.

The police released them the next morning having extorted ransom money from respectively,” said a local in southern Maungdaw. The details of the victims are given below.

No.	Name	Father’s Name	Age	Victim’s Address	Amount Extorted	Remarks
1	Mv Atik Ullah	Ali Akhbar	50	Thandar village	Kyat 30,000
2	Sultan	Lal Meah	60	Thandar village	Kyat 30,000
3	Mv Noor Mohammed		35	Alay Than Kyaw village	Kyat 100,000
4	Foyaz	Zafar Ahmed	60	Wachcha village	BGP Robbed an Expensive RADO Watch and Some New Clothes from his home

It has been reported that the raids have been being conducted under the direction of the BGP Commander Brig-Gen Tin Ko Ko based in the BGP Headquarter 1 in Maungdaw. These atrocities are being committed in their attempts to force the local Rohingyas to accept the Green Cards.

Maungdaw, Arakan State -A Rohingya man arbitrarily charged for killing the In-Charge of his village jumped off the van and fled as the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) was taking him back to the detention in Maungdaw Township last Monday evening. 

The victim is identified to be Irshadullah from Nyaung Chaung (Khadir Bil) village in Maungdaw Township. He was arbitrarily accused of assassinating the village In-Charge (who was also a Rohingya) on January 26, 2015 when the authorities failed to find out the unknown killer. (Read the Related Report: HERE)

“Mr. Irshadullah was accused of killing Mr. Zakir, the village in-charge of Khadir Bil, without any evidences and subsequently arrested by the BGP in January. He has been detained and tortured in the BGP’s cell in 4-Mile-Area in Maungdaw since then.

On Monday morning, the BGP took 25 detainees including him to the Maungdaw Township Court for the hearing of their cases. Later in the evening, the BGP was taking them back to the detention by a ‘Tiba’ Van after the court-hearings. As they reached at ‘Myothu Gyi (Hainda Fara)’ village, he jumped off the van and ran away to save himself from the cruel treatments in the cell and getting imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit,” said a local in Maungdaw.

When he jumped off, one of his hands was cuffed and another part of the handcuffs was held by a BGP personnel. Therefore, as he jumped off, the BGP personnel, too, fell off the van and got slightly injured on his head, according to an eyewitness.

Later, trucks load of BGP personnel arrived at Myothu Gyi village to search for him. Although they besieged the village and thoroughly looked for him but he was nowhere there to be found. Rumours say that he has already fled to Bangladesh.

“We fear that other unrelated/innocent people might be arrested by BGP in relation to this incidence. They don’t follow any law as they are armed-forces. So, they can do anything,” said an elderly Rohingya. 

Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) threatened a Rohingya man and extorted money from him at gunpoint in southern Maungdaw Township last Friday, a reliable source in Maungdaw reported.

It has been learnt that three BGP personnel including their in-charge deputy lieutenant officer from the BGP Patrol Unit in ‘Kyauk Pandu’ village raided the residence of Mr. Karimullah Khalid Hussein at the village’s hamlet, ‘Zaydi Pyin,’ around 8:00 PM on August 28.

“The deputy station commander dragged Mr. Karimullah out of his house, beat him and ordered him to hand over his Bangala mobile phone to him. When he replied that he didn’t have any Bangala phone, the BGP officer pointed his gun at him and forced to admit that he possessed a phone. When he (Karimullah) was adamant, the BGP fired once in the air and threatened to kill him if he kept refusing.

Therefore, for the fear of the getting killed, he admitted he possessed a Bangala phone. After that, the BGP officer extorted Kyat 300,000 from him and left,” said a villager on the condition of anonymity.

The next morning on August 29, a few military personnel from ‘Kyauk Pandu’ camp inquired the villagers regarding the gun-firing the previous night. Upon that, the villagers replied that the deputy lieutenant of the BGP Patrol Unit fired the gun-shot at the residence of Mr. Karimullah.

The military returned to their battalion unit and summoned the BGP officer. They investigated him about the gun-firing. However, he replied to the military that he was an accidental firing.

“Although the military knew that it was a wanton firing to threaten to kill an innocent Rohingya man for ransom, the military didn’t take action against the cruel BGP officer,” said another local Rohingya.

 Myanmar’s Police has started to increasingly harass the local Rohingyas in Maungdaw Township, according to the local sources.

The police in Maungdaw frequently stop them, search their bodies for reasons, rob their belongings and extort money from them.

“Some police personnel from Maungdaw Police station always wait at a Rakhine residence — at the mouth of the street to ‘Boh Hmuu’ village opposite to ‘the Training Centre for Women Domestic Skill’ in Quarter 4 – for the Rohingya people coming from the rural areas to the downtown of Maungdaw.

The stop them and search their bodies for no reasons. They beat them, rob their money and belongings. It’s happening almost every day,” said an eyewitness in Maungdaw.

It has been learnt that, on August 22, the Maungdaw Police arrested Mr. Abul Hashim, hails from ‘Maadilla’ hamlet of Baggona village tract, from Maungdaw Municipal market on the allegation of inciting the violence in 2012. Later, the police released him having extorted Kyat 50,000 from him.

Similarly, on 25th August, while Mr. Mohamed Johar Abul Kasim, hails from ‘Nwa Ron Taung’ village in northern Maungdaw, was on his way to the downtown of Maungdaw, the police at the check-post of the ‘Myoma Kayintan-Myo Thu Gyi’ bridge stopped him. Upon searching his body, the police found out a gold chain he was brining from home to sell at the downtown.

The police extorted Kyat 20,000 from him saying “you, *Kulars, don’t have the rights to carry around Gold.”

*Kular= a derogatory term used against the people of Indian descends in Myanmar. Currently, it has been notoriously to target the Muslim population of the country.

Myanmar’s police extorted humongous among of money from a local Rohingya man in Buthidaung Township on August 22, a reliable report said.

The police in Buthidaung accused the Rohingya man, Mr. Ayub Khala hails from ‘Parung Chaung’ village, of plotting to attack nearby a Rakhine village and threatened to imprison him. Then, the man was nothing but an innocent man trading cattle and buffaloes locally.

 “U Rafique, a licensed buffaloes-cattle trader, handed around 100 buffaloes over to U Ayub to be looked after. On August 22, while he and his hired men was taking the buffaloes to his village Paraung Chaung across ‘Paya Pyin Aung Pha’ village, the sun set and it became dark. Hence, he and his men used to torch lights to go across the village.

The next day, the respective village administrators of ‘Paraung Chaung’ and ‘Paya Pyin Aung Pha,’ both are Rakhine extremists, arbitrarily lodged a police complaint accusing that he and his men plotted to attack a ‘Natala’ Rakhine hamlet in and ‘Paya Pyin Aung Pha’ village tract.

Therefore, the police major Aung Ba Lay, the Township Police Commander, summoned U Ayub to the police station and beat him. Besides, the police commander threatened to send him to the prison. Using various other threats, the police officer extorted Kyat 1,500,000 from him.

Later, the he gave some shares of money to the above-mentioned village administrators,” said a local in Buthidaung Township.

This is not the first time that U Maung Than Htay, the administrator of Paraung Chaung’ village, and U Maung Chan Thar, the that of ‘Paya Pyin Aung Pha’ village have forged cases to torture innocent Rohingya people and extort money from them. There are countless cases like this.