By Rohingya Eye
April 30, 2017
Maungdaw — The
Myanmar troops tortured four Rohingya teenagers in southern Maungdaw on
Saturday (Apr 29), leaving one of the teenagers critically injured, according
to a reliable source.
The teenager was
coming back home after working in his family-owned farm at around 5 pm, when he
was stopped and ganged up by the military. He has been identified as ‘Mohammed
Toyub (16), s/o Abdur Rahim’ from the village of ‘Kullon’ (officially called
Thinbaw Kway) in southern Maungdaw.
Other three
teenagers along with one middle-aged man are also from the same village, were
also tortured by the same troops, while they were looking after their buffalos
at around the same time yesterday.
They are:
1) Hefzur Rahman
(11), s/o Mv Abdus Salaam
2) Abdu Shukkor
(12), s/o Dous Mohammed
3) Omar Farooque
(8), s/o Sultan Ahmed
4) Saleh Ahmed (55),
s/o Mohammed
“The Myanmar
military severely beat up Mohammed Toyub (16) with York (wood). He can’t move
or speak now. His health is in critical condition. Other three minors and one
man were also beaten by the military in similar manners.
“We can’t figure out
why they were so inhumanely beaten up. They were tortured for no reasons at
all”, said a villager on the condition of anonymity.
The military personnel
indulged in the rampant tortures belong to an infantry unit located to the east
of the village of ‘Kullon’ (Thinbaw Kway), which has around 45 troop members.
It operates under the command of ‘Koetankauk Battalion’ in Rathedaung Township.
While in northern
Maungdaw, around 45 Myanmar soldiers encamped in the buildings of ‘Maung Nama’
Post Primary School on April 25. Since then, the curfew period has been
extended in the region from ‘9 PM – 5 AM’ to ‘7 PM – 5 AM’.
A local at the
village of Maung Nama (locally called Mondama) explaining the situation after
the redeployment of the military said “the military are subjecting every other
random person to humiliating body-searches and frequent beatings. They are
plundering fruits and vegetables from our house farms.
“And they daily
order for bottles of mineral water, firewood and petrol from us through village
administrator. We are forced to fulfill their requirements.”
The vulnerabilities
of Rohingya people being subjected to tortures and arbitrary arrests have
increased since recent redeployments of troops in the region.