Four Rohingyas Arrested In Maungdaw For Opposing BGP’s Census

RB News
August 8, 2014 

Maungdaw, Arakan -- On 17th of July 2014, a group from the Burmese Census Taking Authority visited Hetaliya hamlet (Zulapara) in Maungdaw Township to persuade people to register as Bengalis but no Rohingya from the village agreed to register in the Census as Bengalis. At last, the Census group left without success. 

As retaliation, on the 30th of July the authority came back to the village accompanied by a small group of Border Guard Police (BGP) and raided houses in the village indiscriminately. They robbed the villagers of belongings and then separated the women aside and started harassing them. When the security forces were about to rape the women at gun point the villagers, and many people from neighboring villages, gathered and tried to rescue the innocent women. At that point, the security forces opened fire in the air to disperse the crowd. Later, they arrested a few villagers and took them away at gun point to Kyiganpyin, the Head Quarters of BGP. 

The villagers who were arrested are: 

(1) Ismail son of Ashraf Mei 

(2) Ziyaul Haque son of Ismail 

(3) Rafiq son of Zahir Ahmed 

(4) Mohamed Shah son of Zahir Ahmed.

The villagers came to know that the men who were detained were severely tortured and charged for obstructing the Security forces and organizing anti-census activities in the village. It is obvious that, although the Rakhine State authority are trying hard to register the Rohingyas as Bangalis by threatening with various means, the Rohingyas remain united to safe guard their identity. There is much historical evidence that the Rohingyas have been living in Arakan, Burma for centuries.