State level authorities fired shots into the air after a crowd of Rohingyas got upset over being labeled Bengalis, according to one source who didn’t want his name used. No-one was injured during the incident that occurred yesterday morning in in the Amla Para area of Arakan state capital city Sittwe (Akyab)
Things heated up after a team consisting of immigration, police, Nasaka (Burma’s border security force), military and other related personnel arrived to collect personal data from Amla Para locals in the Arakan state capital city of Sittwe (Akyab). When the community was asked what their race was, they told them they were Rohingya, but the data collection team wrote Bengali on the paperwork. After they refused to co-operate the survey team vacated the area.
State authorities started conducting surveys on Rohingya families following the June violence in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Sittwe (Akyab) Townships and other areas of the state. The surveys were temporarily suspended after many people got angry for being labeled as Bengalis. However according to a Sittwe local who also wished to remain anonymous the surveying has resumed, and so has the labeling.
