Over two thousand Buddhists gathered on Arakan state’s Kasim Mountain in Phar Wut Chaung village tract, northern Maungdaw, allegedly part of a grand plan to rename the mountain and build a new pagoda and monastery, claimed various anonymous sources.
Maungdaw Township administration officer U Kyi San reportedly led the group that want the mountain’s name changed from Kasim Raja to Aung Mingala.
Kasim Raja was a Rohingya revolutionary leader from Udaung village in southern Maungdaw who fought against the Burma army when Prime Minister U Nu was in power. He controlled all of the rural areas surrounding Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships, establishing a camp on the mountain’s peak.
Source told Kaladan Press Network the group, which included monks, government staff and locals, announced their plans on a load speaker during the meeting. Administration officers, U Tun Tun Win and U Kamal Hussain, who helped organize the gathering, allegedly forced locals to provide chairs, tools, wooden poles, bamboos, firewood, vegetables and 100 kg of chicken meat from each village for their meals. Reportedly they even used forced labour to construct their tents.
“On that day, Buddhist People were starting to go there from 4 am to 2 pm by cars, motor bikes and even on foot. All the people were wearing same dresses, t-shirts and marked on their shirts Climbers of hill top, Aung Mingala,” a source said.
The government also has plans to create model villages that will lead to more land confiscation from Rohingya farmers, claimed one Rohingya leader from Maungdaw Town.
Currently, there is a small pagoda on the mountain peak constructed by Nasaka (former Burma border security force) in 2003.
