RB News
July 8, 2017
Maungdaw -- Sources
say at least ten Rohingya civilians have been arrested in Southern Maungdaw for
alleged links to rebels fighting against the Myanmar military in the country's
western Rakhine state.
The military and
Border Guard Police (BGP) jointly conducted raids on the village of Nurullah in
Southern Maungdaw around 4:00am today (July 8) arresting at least 25 people and
of whom, 15 were released later.
"They were
accused to have connections with Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a rebel
group operating in the region since last year. But the locals firmly believe
that they are innocent people", said a human rights activist based in
Maungdaw.
The victims arrested
are:
1) Hafiz Idiris
(27), s/o Hafiz Amanullah
2) Hafiz Abdul Hoque
3) Shah Alam s/o
Iqbal
4) Yunose (School
Teacher from Ye Bone Pyin, Padin village tract)
5) Jahangir (18),
s/o Baser
6) Kifayat Ullah
7) Hafiz Nayeem
8) Hussain
9) Yahya Khan
10) And one more.
The victims are now
said to have been transferred to and detained in the camp of the Border Guard
Police Regional Command 9 in southern Maungdaw.
The Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army, earlier called Harakatul Yakeen or the Faith Movement, launched
post-midnight attacks on the Border Guard Police (BGP) Headquarter killing nine
policemen, in October 2016. [The BGP has been responsible for wide and
systematic abuses of the Rohingyas since it was formed and replaced its
predecessor, NaSaKa (the former Border Security Force), in 2013.]
Since then, the
joint forces of the military and the Border Guard Police have killed hundreds
of people and raped women en masse, destroyed or partially destroyed at least
40 villages displacing more than 70,000 people and forcing at least 65,000
people to flee to Bangladesh as refugees. The human rights groups worldwide
have widely condemned the atrocity crimes as a collective punishment on the
civilians under the disguise of 'Region Clearance Operation.'