Maungdaw, Arakan State: The local Rohingya people and authority had become clashed after killing a villager in a road accident in Maungdaw Township, said a local trader on condition of anonymity.

A youth named Sadam Hussain (18), son of Fozu, who hailed from Ngakura Village of Maungdaw Township, was killed in a car accident on March 7 at about 12:00 noon while he was walking along the village road. A truck belonging to the GE military unit hit Hussain at a time when no other cars were on the road. It is believed the driver may have been drunk. The victim was pronounced dead on the spot.

Locals said the accident took place near a mosque on the northern side of the village while Hussain was traveling by foot to his home. The truck was also going to the south of the village from the south side of the village with a driver accompanied by another military man.

Hearing the cries of the victim, nearby villagers rushed to the spot and seized the truck and the two army men. The dead body is still lying on the ground.

Upon being informed, a group of Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) personnel from Nasaka area No. 5 went to the spot and clashed with the angry villagers. However, the situation was brought under control after the Nasaka fired 25 rounds of bullets into air.

At the time of writing this report, the Nasaka and the villagers are standing near the dead body, awaiting the orders of the higher authorities, said a local elder.

“The local people released the dead body to the police of Bawli Bazar after arrival of Naska Director Lt Col Aung Gyi and the Commander of GE military unit on the spot. After postmortem, the dead body was sent to his village, and buried in his local cemetery.”

“The visiting officers promised to give some composition to the parents of Hussain. The truck and the two men of GE military Unit were under custody of Nasaka headquarters.”

Another GE military jeep along with forty Rohingya laborers were involved in an accident on March 5 on the Maungdw-Bawlibazar Road. Five of the laborers were seriously injured while returning to their homes after finishing their work for the day. The injured were immediately admitted to Maungdaw General Hospital. Some of the injured persons’ legs and hands were broken. They were brought to a worksite to construct a road at the orders of the GE military unit, and also sent back to their homes with a jeep belonging to the military unit, said a local elder who declined to be named.

The family members of the victims have not received any compensation from the authorities, said one of the family members.

The GE military unit, who came to Maungdaw Township from Buthidaung to supervise the construction of a fence on the Burma-Bangladesh border, forcibly took the villagers to work site for road construction. They collected villagers with the help of local village chairmen, said another local who asked not to be named.

A local youth said, “It is hard to understand how these accidents happen as there are few other cars on the road.”