The Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) arbitrarily opened fires at three innocent Rohingya men in northern Maungdaw last Friday, injuring one critically and putting his life at risk, according to the reliable sources.

The BGP under ‘Thay Chaung-Chaung Wa’ camp in Taung-Pyo sub-township, Maungdaw township, opened fire at the three people rowing a peddling a boat on pretext that they didn’t stop upon their order for a search on the boat.

The victims are identified to be Sayedul Amin (son of) Abul Khair, 25; Khala Shuna (son of) Abu Yusouf, 20; hail from ‘Mya Zin’ hamlet of ‘Long Doon’ village tract in northern Maungdaw and one more person from ‘Thin Baw Hla’ village, under ‘Taung-Pyo sub-township. All of them are poor people and earn their livelihoods on trading firewood from Taung-Pyo to Maungdaw.

After the firing, the BGP sent Sayedul Amin, the person critically wounded by bullet, to hospital and later took him into detention along with the two other people.

“It was around 2:00pm last Friday that three firewood traders were rowing a pedal boat with some firewood on board. Besides, they have acquired the license for the firewood trading. As they were passing by the ‘Thay Chaung-Chaung Wa’ BGP camp at ‘Thay Chaung’ village tract, some BGP personnel were said to have been hiding in the bush by the stream.

The BGP personnel reportedly called upon them to stop for a search on the boat. The people didn’t stop as they didn’t hear the voice of the BGP as it was too low to be heard. Just for that, the BGP started firing at them. A bullet hit at the higher part of the thigh of a person named ‘Sayedul Amin’ and came out from other side. He fell off the boat and suffered heavy bleeding.

He was temporarily sent to ‘Kyein Chaung’ hospital and later taken into along with others” said a local Rohingya in the region on the condition of anonymity.

It has been learnt that, later, when Sayedul Amin became critical in the detention, he was sent to the hospital again around 2am last Friday. Although the BGP has taken responsibilities of the treatment to the person, no relative of his is allowed to see him in the hospital.

However, the BGP is said to have been preparing to charge them on false allegations of possessions of three lethal swords and three Bangla phones on their boat so as to conceal the crimes that they (the BGP) had committed.

The ‘Chaung Wa’ BGP falls under the BGP commandment area (previously known as commandment area 4) at ‘Leik Ya’ village in Taung-Pyo sub-township. Locals believe that the rampant firing like this and alike in the recent time have been taking under the instructions by the higher BGP officers in the region. Otherwise, there is no way that the BGP can escape with impunity after committing the crimes and rather, make the innocent Rohingyas fall preys to systematic double victimization.

Six Rohingyas were arrested by the BGP and detained them in Zadi-Pyin police custody of Rathedaung Township are missing from yesterday believed to be killed by the authority according to reliable sources.

Among them, four Rohingya who were arrested from Auk-Nan-Yar’ village also known as Razarbill in Rathedaung Township over the blatant allegations of refusing to participate in the census re-enumeration process and the other 2 Rohingyas from Maungdaw Township detained for entering Rathedaung region without proper documentation.

The four missing Rohingyas from Rathedaung— Mv. Yousuf Jalal son of Sayed Ahmed 52, Mv Mohd Ali son of Hafez Ahmed 42, Iman Hussain son of Furuk Ahmed 42, Abdu Salam son of Sultan 48, two of them are religious teachers were being tortured and forcibly shaved their beards kept as a religious requirement together with two other innocent Rohingyas from Maungdaw in the custody.

Yesterday, on 16th March 2015, U Tin Aung Kyaw and Deputy Commander of the BGP in Rathedaung Township made a phone call to the village headman and said the six-arrested Rohingyas ran away from the custody but did not explain him that how they could manage to run away.

The head-man said he was shocked hearing such an unbelievable incident which never happened before. A family member of the victim said “I do not believe that they could manage to run away from the police custody, it might be another designed method of the authority to divert the minds of Rohingyas if they were killed”.

Another relative said if they escaped they might call us but no one made any contact with their families still. So, we doubt they might be killed by the authority and spreading the rumor of their fleeing. On February 8, seven innocent Rohingyas were arrested over the same allegations of refusing to participate in the census re-enumeration process, while many other villagers were also tortured then.

Of them, two persons Mv. Ataullah and Mr. Matalab were release and one of them named Boni Amin son of Ayub 22 was jailed for five years. On 2nd March U Kyaw Kyi a Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) arbitrarily shot a Rohingya minor girl in Razarbill, Rathedaung Township during the so-called census verification but didn’t take any action against the barbaric policeman a villager stated.

There were only 24 Rohingya villages in Rathedaung Township amidst 24 Rakhine village tracts. Three of the Rohingya villages were uprooted during the violence against Rohingya in 2012 and placed them in IDP camps in Shilkali (Chinkali) village located nearby southern-most Maungdaw. Now, “the besieged Rohingya community in Rathedaung is under pressures of the Rakhine extremists and the government forces