In the ongoing conflict between the Rohingyas and the Myanmar authorities, the Hindus in the Rakhine region of the country seem to be paying a very heavy price.
We had reported yesterday about a statement issued by the Myanmar army that, two mass graves of 28 Hindus had been found in the region on Monday. These graves comprised of 20 women and 8 men, which included 6 boys aged below 10 years.
It was reported that, it was a result of Rohingya militants brutally attacking a village in Northern Rakhine on 25th August.
Now it seems that the atrocities heaped by the Rohingyas are far more brutal, after another mass grave containing 17 bodies of Hindu villagers has been discovered barely 200 metres from the original spot. The police have blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgent group for these actions.
A report by Times Now paints an even grim picture of the situation. According to that report, 300 Rohingyas had abducted 100 Hindus on 25 August and killed 92 of them. According to several Hindu refugees, they fled their lands after the Rohingya terrorists came to attack them with weapons like swords, guns and even spears. The hundreds of attackers reportedly burnt the Hindus’ homes and even shouted that Rakhine is an Islamic state.
The report even quoted a Bangladeshi aid worker who claimed that, the Rohingya terrorists have problems with both the Myanmar military and the common people who inhabit the region. The aid worker also claimed that the terrorists were evicting, torturing and killing the Hindu families.
An India today report also covered the 25th August attack on the village and claimed that, the attackers identified the Hindu families, assaulted them and then took them up to a hill to carry out their execution. They reportedly only spared 8 young women who were told that they would have to convert and get remarried. The captive women were even forced to offer Namaz and were made to wear a Burkha.
2 of the women were then taken to a refugee camp in Bangladesh, where news of their atrocity spread and they seem to have been rescued and brought to a Hindu camp. The 6 other women were traced to the Kotupalong Rohingya camp in Bangladesh where they were allegedly kept under close watch by those allegedly carrying out the conversion.
The Bangladeshi authorities were supposedly clueless about the events and promised action, after they were reportedly made aware by the India Today reporters. Another aspect revealed in this report was that one of the men who had gone on to search the missing women (They too allegedly were tortured as a result) claimed that they have faced persecution from both from the Rohingyas and the Myanmar army.
The report also claimed that there are about 5 lakh reugees who have entered Bangladesh, out of which a significant percentage are Hindus.
Looking at the similarity in facts of the three reports may lead one to conclude that, all 3 reports depict same attack and 92 Hindus were murdered, out of which the possible bodies of 45 individuals have now been found. Or it might so be that the graves found are related to different incident. We have to wait and see…