Rakhine Hindus too fleeing persecution

Desk Report: Amid army crackdown in Myanmar, more than 400 Hindu people from Maungdaw state have fled to Bangladesh through a border in Ukhia upazila of Cox's Bazar.

The people belonging to 86 families and are of different ages of the community entered Bangladesh territory along with Rohingyas early on Thursday through Rezu Amtola border and took shelter at  makeshift tents at Paschim Hindupara of Katupalong.

The refugees, who entered Bangladesh, said unidentified people with firearms, bombs, and knives besieged their villages on August 25, when a group of insurgents carried out attacks on Myanmar security forces. The people, wearing black clothes and black veils, surrounded Fakira Bazar, Riktapara and Chikonchhari villages till yesterday and "killed some  86 people of the community", they claimed.

"My husband Kanu Rudro went to visit our son-in-law's house at Fakirabazar," said the woman adding the unidentified armed men killed all of them including her husband Kanu, her daughter, and son-in-law. Another victim, Niranjan Rudru from Chikonchhari of Maungdaw told media that some people, wearing black clothes, besieged the villages and set fire to the Hindu houses in the dead of night.

"There was no name or number on their black clothes. But they were carrying guns, bombs and knives," Niranjan recalled while narrating the reasons for fleeing to Bangladesh. They said one or two Hindu children remain missing while crossing the border with Rohingya refugees.

"We have been living in Myanmar for many generations. We are Burmese Hindu," said Chittya Ranjan Paul, who crossed the border and arrived at Katupalong around 5:30pm yesterday. His identify card issued by the Myanmar government claimed him as "Indian".

Meanwhile, aid workers were found enlisting the names of the Hindu refugees while local Hindu community people came forward to provide them food and shelter. Hindu Boddha Christian Okiya Parishad leaders of Ukhia Katupalong distributed relief materials to the affected refugees.

Source: agencies



risingbd/Dhaka/Sep 1, 2017/Shahed/Nasim