“I am now on my way back from Kutaung to Rathedaung. We have found the dead body of a school teacher from Ugor Village identified as U Thein Han who was killed in the incident in the village and another 9 people are missing from Kutaung village. Witnesses told us that terrorists dragged them away after killing them”, said U Maung Hla Myint.

According to him, a group of suspected terrorists from Anaukpyin Muslim Village came and torched Kutaung Village in an arson-attack around 5 am on 19th of June.

As the villagers came out and chased them, they ran away and they continued to follow them. When they arrived near the Anaukpyin Village, they were shot by local made guns from the village. When they dispersed and ran back, the terrorists followed them and hacked ten of them to death with their machetes.

“The Muslims from Anaukpyin Village got rid of the remaining dead bodies. The soldiers and police are now searching for those bodies, but they had not found them by the time I came back from the village”, he added.

According to a villager from Kutaung Village, the villagers identified are as Thandar Aung and his son, U Tun Baw and his son, Saw Than, Prue Chay, Tin Tun, Than Chay and U Tin Hlaing.

When we contacted the police station in Rathedaung, the officer on duty said they have received the information that three Arakanese and two Muslims were killed in the incident, but refused to give further details.

When asked the township in-charge of the police who was arriving at Anaukpyin Village to investigate the incident, he said, he could not tell us anything about the incident at the moment as he was busy with his responsibilities.