The Border Guard Police (BGP) arbitrarily arrested two innocent Rohingyas and tortured them for ransom in southern Maungdaw on Monday, according to the locals.

The Border Guard Police responsible for the tortures and money extortion have been posted at a sub-camp of Border Guard Police at Inn-Din village under Regional Commandment Area (နယ္ေျမ) 8 in Myint-Hlut (Mer Ullah) village, in southern Maungdaw.

“The BGP raided the homes of Hasmat Ullah (son of) Rahmat Ullah in Thinbaw Kway (Kullon) village around 11:00PM at night. Then, they searched his home. Though nothing illegal was found at his home, they arbitrarily arrested and took him to their custody.

There, in the custody, the police tortured him severely and forced him to say that he used Bangla Mobile Phones. After that, the police released him around 10:00AM on December 1 extorting Kyat 150,000” said a local Rohingya asking to withhold his identity.

This is not first case that the BGP have committed atrocities in the region.

“Similarly, on November 28, the BGP arrested another innocent man called Ali Ahmed (son of) Zafar Ahmed hails from the same village and tortured him until he paid Kyat 150,000” he added.

“Therefore, we request to the higher officials of the government of Myanmar to take actions the BGP so that they stop their barbaric and lawless behavior, arbitrary arrest of the innocent people and torture against them for ransom” he requested.

The Myanmar Border Guard Police has escalated seizing internet-connected electronic devices such as smart phones and other devices from Rohingya people in Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships, some reliable sources say.

Meanwhile, the motive behind the seizures of the devices from the people has not exactly been known. But locals view the action as disabling them from sending the reports of the atrocities against them to international media. And hence, to silence their voice!

“A Rohingya man from Buthidaung was arrested in Maungdaw with the possession of a mobile phone with internet connection on December 2. So, during the investigation, he said he had bought the phone from an electronic shop called Hitachi located in Quarter 2.

So, the Border Guard Police (BGP) arrested Zeyabul Hoque (son of) Hamid, 25, the owner of the shop. He was handcuffed and taken to Buthidaung prison. Now, the BGP demand Kyat 1oM for the release for Zeyabul Hoque” said a local in Maungdaw on condition of anonymity.

“Similarly, on the same day, the BGP raided two other Rohingya-owned electrical and electronic shops: one owned by Hasan Johar (son of) Jamil, 21; and Qaif (son of) Mv Hamid, 22.

In the former’s shop, his computer was checked. No illegal material was found. But the police seized two smart phones with internet connection and an ordinary phone saying that they had found a Bangla number in the contact list.

In the latter’s shop, his computer was checked as well. Nothing illegal was found. One smart phone and an income tax recipient were confiscated. After half an hour, the police returned his phone but not the receipt.

All other electronic shops were raided. Therefore, the other Rohingyas closed their shops in fear” he continued.

The raid to confiscate electronic devices didn’t end just on Tuesday. They did the similar raids yesterday as well.

“A joint operation including Maungdaw Regional Security Police (နယ္ထိန္း အဖဲြ႕) the two electronic shops owned by the two brothers: Abbbu (son of) Yousuf, 25, and Khatu (son of) Yousuf, 23, respectively.

They checked the computer of the former and confiscated two smart phones from his shop. After, the police arrested him and took him away. The latter brother’s computer was checked but he was not arrest. The shops are located in the downtown of Maungdaw” an elderly Rohingya reported.

“We feel that there is some unfortunate things may happen against us. Therefore, the government forces are disabling our means of communication first” he added

Maungdaw Township High Court handed 2-year-imprisonment each to eight innocent Rohingyas on Tuesday, say the locals.

It has been learnt that they were arrested for their refusal to be registered as Bengali during the Myanmar’s nationwide population in March-April and subsequently charged under the section ‘353’ which deals with Prevention of Government Servants from performing their duties.

All of them are the locals of Kyauk Hle Kar village in northern Maungdaw. They are identified to be:

Zahir Ahmed (son of) Abdu Subhahan, 50

Noor Alam (son of) Sayedur Rahman, 42

Mohammed Noor (son of) Noor Alam, 25

Idiris (son of) Zahir Ahmed, 18

Majid (son of) Mohammed Alam, 17

Zafar (son of) Noor Alam, 25

Hf Shobu Alam (son of) Mohammed Akbar, 28

Amin (son of) Ahmed Kabir, 18

“Eight people including youths and under-age were arrested in Kyauk Hle Kar village in the early April and charged under section 353. They didn’t cause any problems to the way of the government staffs during the population survey.

According to the regulations of the census, everyone has the right to identify with the ethnic name they like.

They peacefully refused to be registered as Bengali because the government staffs refused to register them as Rohingya. So, they committed no offense” said a local Rohingya observer of the trial.

“During the trial, the family members of the people were not allowed to attend as the observers. No lawyers provided for the side of the accused. Only the complainants (the Border Guard Police), Prosecutors, Accused and Judge were present in the court. It was a closed-door trial.

Therefore, the trial was extremely unfair” he added.

A joint operation by Police, Border Guard Police (BGP) and Immigration plundered at least 14 Rohingya homes in Duchirandan village and arbitrarily arrested not less than four innocent Rohingyas during a raid conducted in this early morning, the locals report.

The Duchiradan or Du-Chi-Yar-Tan (locally known as Kilaidaung) is a village in southern Maungdaw already crippled by the government-sponsored violence early this year. Tens of people were killed, many women were raped and hundreds of homes and burnt down and plundered, whereas hundreds were forced to leave home.

Today, the raid on the pretext of arresting people suspected to have links with external rebel groups lasted for three hours causing serious damages to the village again.

“A joint force of around 300 the police, the Border Guard Police and Immigration in total raided the village of Duchiradan at around 12:30AM today. It continued until 3:30AM.

“Actually, the raid to arrest the so-called suspected people is just the pretext. They plunder homes, torture people and rape women during the raids”

During the raid, they arrested 4 innocent people and plundered at 14 homes: their money, gold and other valuable properties. They tortured the innocent people found and bodily harassed the girls/women.

The people arbitrarily arrested are:

1) Ghafur Alam (son of) Bodi Alam, 48, 2) Mohammed Rizwan (son of) Noor Amin, 16, 3) Noor Jalal (son of) Mohammed Jalal, 17 and 4) Mohammed Zubair (son of) Dil Mohammed, 14. They have been detained since then.

The victims whose homes got plundered are:

1)Abdus Salam (son of) Ausi Rahman, 2) Noor Mahmud (son of) Dule Rahman, 3) Fayaz Dule Rahman, 4) Mahmud Sulaiman (son of) Dule Rahman, 5) Shomsul Alam (son of) Kullya Meah, 6) Noor Alam (son of) Khala Meah, 7) Shukkor Ahmed (son of) Saleh Ahmed, 8) Zahir Ahmed (son of) Basa Meah, 9) Lala Meah (son of) Noor Ahmed, 10) Kamal Hussein (son of) Imuddin, 11) Rahimullah (son of) Ausi Rahman, 12) Noor Amin (son of) Kullya Meah, 13) Noor Mahmud (son of) Khala Meah and 14) Hussein (son of) Ayub Ali” said an elderly Rohingya ” said an elderly Rohingya.

“Actually, the raid to arrest the so-called suspected people is just the pretext. They plunder homes, torture people and rape women during the raids” he added.

For last two weeks, the atrocities have escalated in southern Maungdaw. The recent incidents in Baggona are some examples. (Read: 6 Innocent Rohingyas Arrested by Border Guard Police to be Imprisoned)

Similarly, one more innocent Rohingya was arrested in northern Maungdaw on 27th November night on the pretext of connection with the so-called RSO (Rohingya Solidarity Organization).

“Khairul Amin (son of) Najim, 50, hails from Kwan Thi Pin village of Taung Pyo sub-township, northern Maungdaw. The border guard police (BGP) arrested him under the direction of the BGP commander in Taung Pyo on the pretext of his *RSO links.

He has disappeared since the arrest. His family can’t meet him and doesn’t know his whereabouts. The family is extremely worried.

Besides, they looked for two more people: Noor Hussein and Abdullah Hamid to arrest. Now, the authority has started arresting and instigating the people again possibly to create one more round of violence like in 2012.”

*RSO= Rohingya Solidarity Organization RSO is a former Rohingya armed group that has been disbanded long ago. Bangladesh government has officially announced that it is no longer existent today. Burma Experts on Minorities’ Armed Groups, Bertil Linter, has denied any such existence of RSO with arms.

Now, Rakhine extremists and Myanmar Government have started to spread propaganda that militants from RSO (Rohingya Solidarity Organization), are infiltrating into Myanmar so as to be able to scapegoat and kill even more innocent Rohingyas to achieve their respective political goals.