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.