Maungdaw, Arakan State: A group of villagers have been injured after soldiers from the General Engineering (GE) military unit beat members of a wedding party while they were returning from the bride’s village to the groom’s village in a caravan of five vehicles, said a relative of the bride. 

On March 10, at about 5:00 pm, when the wedding party, including women, children, and men, accompanied by the bride, were traveling to the house of the bridegroom by vehicles, a group of GE military soldiers led by a sergeant met them on the road. The party was severely beaten by the GE members as their vehicles were driving on a recently paved road. One of the drivers was seriously wounded and took treatment at the Nasaka headquarters.

The members of the party went to the Nasaka Headquarters after the incident and appraised the authorities about the arbitrary beating without warning in advance. However, the Nasaka Director Lt. Col. Aung Gyi did not take any heed, said a relative of the bridegroom.

The drivers of the vehicles and the members of the party did not know it was not allowed to drive vehicles on the road, and also the authorities did not post any signs regarding this in advance.

The GE personnel randomly beat members of the wedding party, including women and children. Even the bride ran away to avoid the GE military unit’s beating. The vehicles were traveling to Kyauk Hla Gaar (Dargha Bill) Village, home of the bridegroom, from Kawliza Banga Village under Bakargona Village Tract with a distance of six kilometers, said a village elder on condition of anonymity.

The bridegroom is identified as Hafez Ahmed, age 24, son of Habi, who hails from Kyauk Hla Gaar village, said one of the party members. 

A villager from the locality said, “This incident may be the GE members’ revenge for the accident that occurred on March 7 between GE members and villagers of Ngakura village in Maungdaw Township.”

“They are treating members of the Rohingya community as if they are not human beings,” said a Rohingya youth.