He said: “Teachers and civil servants from the areas of Kyikanpyin and Ngakhuya spoke to me on the phone yesterday [9 October]. There are concerns for their security.  They told me that they want to move back to Maungdaw Town. The party [the ANP] has given me instructions to find out about such situations. It’s difficult to estimate the number of civil servants in that area. Some of the villages are not secure so whole villages might have to be abandoned.”

People living locally to the border posts of Kyikanpyin, Kotankauk, and Ngakhuya have been concerned for their safety and worried by a lack of security since the border posts, which come under the control of Maungdaw District’s Border Police 1, were attacked in the early hours of 9 October.

U Maung Hla Myint, a headmaster from Kyikanpyin Village said: “We want to live in a safe area but there are security concerns on the road we travel on. There are [also] security concerns here. That’s why the authorities have told us not to go to Maungdaw Town.”

At a Ministry of Information press conference held at 7pm on 9 October the chief of the Burma Police Force, Police Major-General Zaw Win said that there were gaps in the way the police had gathered information about the attacks in Maungdaw District and that since the attacks the police, in cooperation with the army, had increased border security.

He said: “If we look at the whole incident, a total of nine policemen have been killed – one officer and eight policemen of other ranks. Five policeman have [also] been injured – one officer and four policemen of other ranks. One policeman is missing. As for the weapons, some of them have been seized back. 51 assorted arms, 10,140 rounds of ammunition, one bayonet, and 28 magazines of bullets have gone missing. We found eight attackers’ bodies and caught two of them alive. We have seized one pistol, two rounds of ammunition, and one magazine of bullets.”

He also said that the police had been cooperating with the Burma Army and that security in the area was being tightened so that there would be peace and stability. They are also trying to retrieve the weapons, capture the culprits and take action against them.

Maj-Gen Zaw Win also said that the attacks on the border posts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships cannot be definitively blamed on the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), but some of the attackers had allegedly shouted the word Rohingya and spoke Bengali during the attacks.

Even though the Burma Army and Burma Police are guarding the roads and searching people the residents are still afraid. A curfew between the hours of 7pm to 6am is also in force in Maungdaw District.

Reporting by Nai Linn Htun for M.N.A
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI