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A local administrator was found dead in Buthidaung township in western Myanmar’s turbulent Rakhine state on Sunday, the State Counselor’s Office announced on Tuesday.
An unknown group of people killed Tahhrl, the administrator of the township’s Michaung Khaungswae village, in a nighttime attack, the announcement said.
His body was found with stab wounds on his neck and cuts on his right eyebrow and lips, it said.
Local police opened a case, and an investigation is under way.
Other recent deaths possibly caused by extremists blamed for a major attack on government guard posts last October have occurred in the area.
An administrative official from Pazonchaung village in Buthidaung township was killed by unknown assailants on May 19, while another while another remains missing after being abducted.
An accidental explosion of handmade bombs in Buthidaung’s Theni village on May 4 killed two people and injured three others as the victims assembled bombs. Security personnel who checked the village the following day found bags of potassium nitrate, sulfur, coal powder, and other materials used to make bombs near a forest.
Thirty civilians have been killed and 22 others have gone missing in neighboring Maungdaw township since Oct. 9, 2016, when deadly attacks on three local border guard posts occurred.
Buthidaung, along with Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships in the northern part of Rakhine state, were under a four-month crackdown from October 2016 to February 2017 after the raid by a militant group that claimed to represent the country’s Muslim Rohingya community.
About 1,000 people were killed during the crackdown, and roughly 90,000 Rohingya were displaced, with most of them fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh where they are living in refugee camps.
Rakhine state is home to about 1.1 million Rohingya, about 120,000 of whom live in internally displaced persons camps as a result of communal violence with majority Buddhists in 2012.
The Rohingya are denied basic rights, freedom of movement, and access to social services and education because they are viewed as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although most have lived in Myanmar for generations.
Reported by Kyaw Thu for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Those slain men revealed the real situation on the ground.
Dirty work of covered Bengali Rohingya terrorists as usual!
May 31, 2017 06:05 AM
Plz avoid using the word extremist against the ARSA stabbing the village official as well as the killing of other innocent people is not the work of arakan rohingya salvation army as they already declared in their statement
May 31, 2017 03:31 AM
I don't understand why do you write the word extremist to the rohingya self defense group it means that you're not a fair writer why not you call other rebels groups as a extremist who are fighting for their rights plz avoid writing extremist to the rohingya self defense group who are fighting for their rights which is denied by the myanmar government
May 30, 2017 06:09 PM
"Who is going to believe your lies." - People that can read history and fully understand what took place all those years ago and then cross reference today in comparison.
The Bengali-Muslim ( Rohingya) RSO or ARSA terrorists have a long and well-documented history of attacking the Burmese security services in Maungdaw area.
Jun 01, 2017 01:48 AM
