Five Rohingya Women Brutally Tortured By Police And Forced To Say Rohingya Torched Their Homes

RB News 

March 19, 2014 

Maungdaw, Arakan – Rohingya houses in Sin Thay Pyin hamlet of Longdon village tract and Phan Myaung hamlet of Nga Sar Kyu village tract in Maungdaw Township of Arakan state burnt down to ashes again on March 15, 2014, and four women were arrested. 

The fire started from the house of Noor Bashar son of Sultan Ahmed, in Sin Thay Pyin hamlet on March 15th at 11:25 am. Then after four minutes another fire started from the houses of Mohammed Husson, son of Zawbul Husson, and Noor Husson, son of Batha Miah, simultaneously. The fire didn’t spread from house to house, but rather started from the houses of Ayub S/o Noor Hussein, Dudu Miah S/o Alam, Amir Hussein S/o Fawkir Ahmed, Noor Hussein S/o Abdul Munaf and Noor Amin S/o Siddique, simultaneously and all were burnt down into ashes. 

At the same time a fire started in Phan Myaung hamlet of Nga Sar Kyu village tract and the house of Bawdi Alam S/o Abdul Zawbor caught fire and burnt down the houses of Abu Siddique S/o Kala Miah, Abu Lu, Shabbir S/o Sayed Alam, Noor Kabir S/o Eisof Ali and Ahmed Kabir S/o Eisof Ali. 

The fire started at 11:25 am and was not extinguished until 2 pm. According to the locals, they said they could have extinguished the fire earlier but the security personnel had prevented them from doing so for some time before they confronted and extinguished the fire. The fire left 145 people homeless. 

Evidence suggest that it wasn’t a normal accidental fire, but rather it was systematically torching by the local Rakhine extremists group. The authorities arrested three Rohingya women from Sin Thay Pyin and one from Phan Myaung. They are (1) Sha’ Ah Nu D/o Hamid Hussein (Age 29), Noor Ankis D/o Jamal Hussein (Age 46) and Hasina Zuhar D/o Iman Hussein (Age 35) from Sin Thay Pyin hamlet and Gul Zuhar D/o Abdul Rahman from Phan Myaung. The authorities forced them to stand in front of burnt houses and took the photos. Then they were taken to the police station in Kyain Chaung village. 

Reportedly four women and the one woman arrested on March 10, 2014 were brutally beaten and tortured in the lockup in Kyain Chaung. They were forced to say that the Rohingyas torched their homes by themselves. As they were severely injured after inhumanly beaten they were taken to Kyain Chaung hospital on March 16th. And then they were brought to Maungdaw court on March 17th and now under police custody at Kyain Chaung police station. 

MYARF and Rohingya Eye contributed in reporting.