Arakan Army uses flashbang grenades as warning to those defying Covid-19 rules

By DMG 31 Jul 2021

DMG Newsroom
31 July 2021, Sittwe 

The Arakan Army (AA) said it had detonated stun grenades in the Arakan State capital Sittwe this past week as a warning to those who are failing to follow the ethnic armed group’s Covid-19 stay-at-home orders. 

Sittwe saw six of the “flashbang” grenades explode over two consecutive days — near the entrance of the state capital’s BXT Jetty on July 27, and near the express bus terminal on July 28. 

AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha said the explosions were a warning against social gatherings in defiance of the armed group’s orders. 

The AA would take punitive action against those who continue to ignore its Covid-19 regulations, said U Khaing Thukha, without specifying what that punitive action might be.  

The United League of Arakan (ULA), the AA’s political wing, has also warned those who do not follow Covid-19 regulations in Kyauktaw Township, said resident Ko Zaw Win. 

“I heard some of them were taken away and some were chided today,” he said. The ULA announced a two-week lockdown for Arakan State on July 20, urging people to stay in their homes until August 4. 

The chairman of the Thingaha Kanlet charity group, Ko Ann Thar Gyi, called on Arakanese people to follow the regulations of the ULA/AA as they were issued in the interest of Arakanese people. 

“In Minbya, AA members distributed masks holding bamboo sticks. And I saw similar photos from Kyauktaw. It is done in the interest of the people,” he said. 

The ULA has also urged people to help those in need amid the crisis, and said it may extend the stay-at-home period depending on the infection and death rates as August 4 nears. 

Since the beginning of the third outbreak in Arakan State, 2,714 people were infected with coronavirus and 175 people had died of it as of July 30, according to the state’s Department of Public Health.