Arakan News Agency | Exclusive
The Arakan Army an armed, has detained 10 Rohingya families in the village of Bantaubiin, located in Maungdaw Township of western Myanmar’s Arakan State. The group also abducted a Rohingya child from a shop in the city center.
Local sources told Arakan News Agency on Tuesday that Arakan Army soldiers stormed the central area of Maungdaw on July 13 and kidnapped Mohammed Harith, a boy from the village of Gon Na in the Latha neighborhood, while he was sitting inside the shop. The soldiers wore masks during the abduction, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
The sources added that on July 10, three Rohingya laborers working on a commercial construction site were arrested and accused of being members of (ARSA). They were reportedly tortured and subjected to inhumane treatment before being released. All three men were residents of Zayntola village in the Myo-Yu neighborhood.
These incidents are part of a growing pattern of arrests since June. In the first week of June, the Arakan Army arrested two Rohingya families, followed by four in the second week and another four in the third week—bringing the total number of detained families from Bantaubiin to 10, including women and children.
Reports indicate that these families had recently returned to their original village after fleeing during the violent military campaigns of 2024, which caused widespread displacement among various ethnic groups. However, the Arakan Army has been accused of targeting Rohingya returnees with arbitrary arrests and coercive interrogations, while not subjecting other groups to similar treatment.
Additionally, Arakan Army leadership has instructed village heads to collect detailed data on returnees from Bangladesh, including family sizes, individual identities, and current places of residence, and to submit this information to regional offices.
Since the Arakan Army seized control of Maungdaw on December 8, it has continued its violations against the Rohingya population, including forcibly closing their homes based on false complaints, seizing their properties, and displacing many families.
Strict restrictions have also been imposed on the Rohingya. Movement between villages is now tightly controlled through a network of security checkpoints placed at the entrances and exits of every Rohingya village. The army has also begun charging fees to Rohingya pedestrians and motorcycle owners for crossing local bridges.
The Arakan Army launched its military campaign against the Myanmar military in November 2023 in a bid to take control of the state. It has since captured 14 out of 17 townships. Caught in the crossfire, the Rohingya have once again faced violence, forced displacement, and persecution at the hands of both sides.
This comes after the Myanmar military’s 2017 campaign of what has widely been described as genocide, which forced nearly one million Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.
