Maungdaw, Arakan State: Concerned authorities in Maungdaw issued a curfew order through village authorities yesterday, said a village leader in Maungdaw.

“The township authority issued an order to us to inform the villagers not go out at night after 22:00 hours.”

“The order was not issued directly from the concerned authorities of Maungdaw to the people, but passed instead from village authorities.”

The curfew order was issued in Maungdaw following the March 1 arrest and torture of villagers from Kamaung Seik (Fokira Bazaar) Village Tract by members of Burma’s border security force, or the Nasaka, over the allegation that the group had connections with an insurgent group in Nasaka Area No. 2 of Maungdaw Township, said a local elder from Maungdaw.

“There is no evidence to suggest that the Arakanese Rohingya community consented to the discussion with insurgents. It is just an excuse for the Nasaka to charge, harass, and extort money from the Arakanese Rohingya community.”

Chris Lewa, head of The Arakan Project, told DVB that there was no evidence to link the group to mujahedeen groups.

Similarly, in Maungdaw South, the Nasaka ordered villagers to search for a group of thieves that has been robbing the villages and killing collaborators of the Nasaka. Currently the villagers are not able to stay in their villages as they are hunting robbers in the nearby mountainous area by order of authority, said a schoolteacher from Maungdaw South.

“The Nasaka are stationed along the border where the authorities have fenced the border with wire. How could the robbers have come from outside?”

“In Maungdaw, there are frequent robbings, but no one is arrested and the robbers can speak fluently in Burmese. If the group of thieves is from Bangladesh or Arakanese Rohingya, they wouldn’t be able to speak fluently in Burmese like the Nasaka or Natala villagers.”

The concerned authorities are imposing curfew in Maungdaw only for members of the Arakanese Rohingya community, and not for Arakanese Rakhine areas, said a student from Maungdaw.

“It [the curfew] is just to harass the Arakanese Rohingya community and to extort money from them.”