Four dead bodies of unknown Rohingyas were found in the valleys of the mountains in southern Maungdaw yesterday, some Rohingya firewood gatherers said.

The firewood gatherers believe that some armed Rakhine miscreants have killed the people as they were crossing the mountains.

“We went to collect firewood in the mountains nearby Kaing Gri Rakhine hamlet of Tharay Kunbaung village tract yesterday morning. There in the valleys, we spotted four dead bodies of unknown Rohingyas covered under leaves. When we tried to examine the corpses more, some armed Rakhine miscreants saw us and started firing their guns at us. Therefore, we were unable to know more details about the corpses” said a Rohingya firewood gatherer.

“No other people are allowed to go to the place and see the dead bodies by the possible terrorists. The victims killed are likely from Buthidaung Township. They might have been killed as they were crossing the mountains on their way to Maungdaw Township” he added.

Several Rakhine Buddhist Model villages have been established on the confiscated lands of Rohingyas in southern Maungdaw in the recent two decades. Of the villages, armed Rakhine extremists in the villages such as ‘Kaing Gri and Maw Ra Waddy’ have been notorious for committing crimes against the vulnerable Rohingya people with the cooperation of the Military and the Border Guard Police (BGP).

Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) has been notorious for facilitating the human trafficking in Arakan state, but nowadays they expel the Rohingya people by pushing them into the hands of their partners in human trafficking, according to reliable sources.

The BGP and their partners have started to abduct innocent Rohingya children and hand them over to the human traffickers waiting standby on boats within Myanmar’s water of the Bay of Bengal not so off the sea coast in southern Maungdaw Township.

“There is a human trafficker named Abul Hashim (son of) Ishaaq at Kyauk Pandu village also known as Shitaaf in southern Maungdaw. He, with the supports by the Border Guard Police (BGP) in the region, coaxes and gathers the innocent people on the pretext of sending them to Malaysia. Then, he uses an engine boat owned by his co-villager, Kifayatullah (son of) Kaasim, to send the people to the fishing trawlers waiting in the Bay of Bengal. And the human traffickers need to bribe the BGP Kyat 10,000 person.

Therefore, when the human traffickers and BGP are unable to coax enough people for their trafficking business, they abduct innocent children and forcibly send them to the boats waiting in the Bay of Bengal.

And the fishing trawlers take the people to Thailand and many of the people die on their way” said a local Rohingya that have witnessed many such cases in southern Maungdaw.

It has been learnt that in December 2014, they together abducted a 12-year-old ‘Salimullah’ and sent him to their boat. Now, the child is said to have been still held by the two human traffickers in Thailand, ‘Abbas and Islam,’ siblings of Abul Hashim because the child’s parents are unable to pay the ransom that they (the human traffickers) demand.

Following numbers of people have been smuggled by Abul Hashim with the supports by BGP on the following dates respectively.

On January 18, 2015, fifteen people

On January 17, 2015, fifteen people

On January 15, 2015, eight people

On January 14, 2015, five people

On December 3, 2014, twenty seven people

On December 27, 2014, eighty people

These people included both children and adults whom the human traffickers has either coxed or abducted.

A UNHCR report says more than 20,000 Rohingya people (trafficked by the well-connected agents) have risked their lives in Indian Ocean enroute to Thailand. However, this could be estimated figures. The actual numbers of the people that have died in the sea and in the hands of the human traffickers since 2012 violence could well exceed 40,000.

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.