PAUKTAW, ARAKAN — A young Rohingya man, from Kyein Ni Pyin IDP camp, Pauktaw Township, Rakhine State was brutally murdered while returning home from a nearby village.
Three displaced Rohingya men (Abdul Rahman. 25, Noor Mohammed, 27 and Abdul Khalek, 30) from Kyein Ni Pyin IDP camp went out to purchase prawns and fish in Anauk Ywai village on January 31 morning. The men had to cross a mountain to make this journey. At 10 AM Abdul Rahman separated from the group to use the toilet and was found brutally murdered 30 minutes later.
“In the early morning we bought prawns and fish from Anauk Ywai village and were coming back across the mountain at 10am. On our way Abdul Rahman told us he had to go to toilet and we were waiting for him about 40 yards away. We waited about half an hour and our minds started to worry. At the time he called us. We heard “Hello” twice, and nothing else. We went to look for him and we found him lying down severely injured. He was dead,” said one of the men who escaped the scene.
“Last year a young Rohingya man was also killed nearby the same mountain by Rakhine villagers from Sin Aing Rakhine village. Likewise this could be by their hands,” he added. Subsequently police was informed and the head of police from Station Number 12, Kyaw Myint Aung went out with other policemen to gather the body of Abdul Rahman.
By 2pm the body of Abdul Rahman was taken to Pauktaw Hospital and an autopsy was performed. Later on his body was laid to rest in a cemetery in Kyein Ni Pyin.
“This was a murder that occurred due to a disagreement between traders. It would never be by the hands of Rakhine people,” said the police in-charge, Kyaw Myint Aung.
The Rohingya people in Pauktaw Township have been living peacefully with Rakhine for many years but since October 2012 Rakhine extremist groups and the Government’s Armed Forces have attacked many times. These attacks have resulted in the deaths of five Rohingya villagers and thirteen village tracts have been burnt down.
More than 30,000 Rohingya villagers from these villages are now homeless and displaced, with thousands having fled to Sittwe where they now live in the camps for Internally Displaced People.
Pauktaw is a poorly developed township where 75 per cent of inhabitants are impoverished. There is no road-way for cars and residents have to cross the mountains and open land to travel from one village to another. (RB News)