Details Revealed Of Military Officers After Theft Of Rohingya Property, Abuse Of Rohingya Women, Raids On Mosques And Desecration Of Quran

Maungdaw, Arakan – On the 29th of October, 2016, in the morning military forces destroyed several properties, tortured women and committed religious offense while stationed inside of the mosques in U Shey Kyar Village, Northern Maungdaw, Arakan State.

On the 29th October, 2016, at around 11:30 AM, military forces along with NaTaLa villagers raided a mosque and madrassa together in U Shey Kyar’s West Hamlet. While they were there they destroyed copies of the Holy Quran by tearing them apart. 

The military in the village at this time had been divided into four patrol groups, with one headed to the Northern Hamlet where they raided mosques and also desecrated the Holy Quran by tearing it up. Two of the other groups during raids on the Middle Hamlet mosque and a nearby market. 

The four military groups looted properties at this time as well, taking what they wanted and destroying other belongings of he Rohingya living in the village. The soldiers were also reported by locals to have abused and beaten women and elderly at this time. 

Local civilians told RB News that the motivation for the soldiers was to retaliate against the villagers there for talking to the media about other abuses that had been committed over the past month. After the raid at around midnight, the forces gathered again in the mosques, where they cooked and ate goats and chickens they had stolen from the villagers. On October 30th the forces left in the morning, taking with them what they had looted from the villagers there.

While they were in the mosques, they wrote records for themselves which identified who they were. 

The records are pictured here:

Photos of military forces after looting in U Shey Kyar Village on 29 of October.