AA reportedly detains police officer in Taungup Twsp

By DMG 04 Nov 2022

DMG Newsroom
4 November 2022, Taungup

A police officer at Maei Police Station in Arakan State’s Taungup Township was reportedly abducted by the Arakan Army (AA) on Friday morning, according to a ward administrator and a local.

The police officer was arrested at a Kathina robe offering ceremony organised by junta-controlled government departments in Maei, a local ward administrator told DMG.

“The military government departments organised a Kathina robe offering event in Santwae Village in Maei town. He [the police officer] was arrested while he was having lunch. I was at the ceremony, but I don’t know how many AA members took him,” the ward administrator said.

The police officer has been assigned to Maei Police Station for one year and the reason for the arrest remains unknown, the ward administrator added.

“I heard the news that a police officer was taken by the AA, but I don’t know much more because I was at home at the time [of the abduction],” said a local woman. “He [the police officer] was reportedly arrested while having lunch at a Kathina robe offering ceremony in Santwae Village.”

DMG was unable to obtain comment from junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun or Arakan State Minister for Security and Border Affairs Colonel Kyaw Thura regarding the AA’s abduction of a police officer. DMG continues to attempt to contact AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha regarding the matter.

Myanmar’s military regime has recently stepped up its arrests of civilians of various occupations and from several Arakan State townships on suspicion of having ties to the Arakan Army, amid renewed fighting with the Arakanese ethnic armed group that kicked off in earnest in August.

The Arakan Army has also made a series of arrests of policemen and junta soldiers in recent months.