Maungdaw, Arakan State: Police in plain clothes used a Bangladeshi mobile phone to extort money from Rohingyas on September 15th in the southern Maungdaw village of Khonzabill, said Hashim Ullah, a local elder from the local.
The Rohingya victims were identified as Shamsu (20) and Zalia Ahamed (18) from Khonzabill Village, which is part of Maungdaw Township.
A relative of Shamsu said that two policemen in civilian clothes were heading to Konzabill Village when they suddenly summoned the two Rohingya youths by phone. Upon meeting the youths the policemen alleged that they had been using Bangladeshi mobile phones.
Thereafter, the Rohingya youths were beaten up by the policemen, who also forced them to confess to using Bangladeshi mobile phones, the relative said.
According to sources, Shamsu and Hussain didn’t have any Bangladeshi mobile phones. Rather, the policemen themselves brought the phones with them and placed them in the youths’ hands. This is the method the policemen used to extort money from them.
The policemen then informed the local village administration officer Sayed Alam and demanded a huge sum of money for their release. The youths were released only after Sayed Alam gave the policemen 120,000 kyat per head, said a police aid.
