Muslim villager abducted by ARSA found dead in Buthidaung Twsp

By Admin 11 Sep 2023

DMG Newsroom
11 September 2023, Buthidaung

A Muslim man from Meekyaung Khaungswel Village, part of Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township, was found dead one day after he was detained by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), locals said.

The man has been identified as U Mahmud Ruh Kul, a 60-year-old community elder. Claiming that he was feeding information to the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA), ARSA members entered his home and abducted him at about 11 p.m. on September 9.

He was found dead on September 10, an eyewitness who did not want to be named told DMG on condition of anonymity.

“We saw the body of the murdered person floating in the Mayu River. The body already smelled. The villagers buried the dead body,” the unnamed resident added.

ARSA members were accused of burning a vehicle on the road section between Laungdon and Kyeinchaung villages in Maungdaw Township, and of abducting two Muslim men in the area, on August 12.

Locals are worried as both armed and unarmed ARSA members have been reported in Maungdaw District — comprising the two aforementioned townships — in recent days.

“ARSA members stayed in the village for a long time, and returned, so the villagers are afraid. Local women dare not go outside,” said a local man from Meekyaung Khaungswel Village in Buthidaung Township.

An online discussion to mark the sixth anniversary of the genocide against Muslims in Arakan State was held on August 25. Villagers of northern Arakan State said the increased activity and movements of ARSA members in Maungdaw District were widely noted as following the sixth anniversary event.

The movement of ARSA members within territory controlled by the junta in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships has become a cause for concern among local residents, and politicians say there is a need for the regime to assert whatever authority it claims to wield.

Muslim armed groups such as ARSA, the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and other small ARSA splinter groups have been active, to varying degrees in recent years, in Maungdaw District along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.