The Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) arrested two Rohingya religious scholars on arbitrary allegations in northern Maugdaw Township on October 13, according to the reports by eyewitnesses.

The BGP arbitrarily framed charges against the two scholars of possessing Bangla SIM Cards and beat them up taking them into their camp. They detained one of them under the arbitrary charge, releasing another afterwards after extorting Kyat 0.6 Million.

“Mv Sayed Salam Mohammed Salam and Mv Jafar Hussein Yusof, two religious scholars hail from East Hamlet of ‘Kyauk Pyein Seik’ village tract, were in their way to Maungdaw by their respective motorcycles around 9:30AM on November 13.

As they reached to BGP Check-Post nearby the Bridge between ‘Hla Pho Kaung’ village and ‘Kyauk Pyein Seik’ village, the BGP personnel stopped their motorcycle and dragged them into their camp. They stripped off their clothes on pretext of body-search. Nothing was said to have found.

And a BGP staff came out and put a ‘Bangala Grameen SIM Card’ into their motorcycle. After that, (it was said that) the BGP put another SIM Card into the pocket of Mv Jafar Hussein. So, after the plotting the charges, the BGP accused both innocent scholars of possessing Bangla SIM Cards.

So, they inhumanely started beating them in their camp. And they (the BGP) demanded Kyat 300,000 from each of them for their releases. Since they (the victims) were only able to pay Kyat 300,000 (for both), they were transferred to the BGP Commander in ‘Kyauk Hle Karr’ village under Region (Nay Myay) 6, northern Maungdaw.

The BGP commander also beat them. He released Mv Sayed Alam as he was able to pay Kyat 600,000, while kept another victim, Mv Jafar Hussein, in detention under the made-up charge of possession of ‘Bangla SIM Card.’

On November 16, he was transferred to Maungdaw Township Court for trial under the charge framed against him,” said a local who witnessed incident when the victims were arbitrarily arrested.

Now, it has been learnt that the Maungdaw police took him under their detention after taking ‘Remand’ from the Court. His family members were not allowed to see him although they sought permission from the authorities to meet him while he was being taken to the court.

Nowadays, money extortions from the local Rohingya people by the Police and the Border Guard Police (BGP) by framing such arbitrary charges have become rampant. Money extortion is being treated by the armed forces as a legal business.

The Burmese Police chased and arrested few internally displaced Rohingyas in Sittwe Township, Arakan state, last Friday.

On November 19, the Police is said to have attempted to arrest a few Internally Displaced People (IDP) in ‘Sethamma Gyi (Say Thar Mar Gyi)’ IDP Camps for unknown reasons. And it consequently led to a confrontation between the Police and the IDP.

During the confrontation in the Camps, the Police saw some IDP carrying knives with them. Therefore, the Police called for extra Forces and as the more Police Forces arrived, the (displaced) dispersed and left the place.

“Actually, the people carrying knives were from ‘Thandaw Li (Saantoli)” village taking shelter in the IDP Camps. Having knives with them and taking them wherever they go is their custom and tradition.

They used to do it. They are doing now. It’s not to harm anybody. And they were not involving in the confrontation but other people were.

However, the police misunderstood it or intentionally call for more police forces despite knowing it. As more police forces arrived, everybody left the place as they didn’t want the confrontation into a conflict or violence” said an internally displaced Rohingya.

Nevertheless, on November 20 around 7:30AM, many fully-prepared police forces raided in ‘Sethamma Gyi’ IDP Camps and started chasing people. One displaced Rohingya was arrested while the police kept chasing other people.

It has been further learnt that the arrested Rohingya was taken to the Police station of ‘Ohndaw Gyi’ IDP camps afterwards. The police kept him under the hot-sun in the premise of the police station for the whole day by tying him in the post with his hands also tied at his back.

Some of his camp-mates went to the police station to try to get him released.