The head of Padin, a Muslim village in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, was released by a group of kidnappers on Friday, more than two weeks after he was taken from his home in the middle of the night.
Mahmud Shofy, the village head, was detained at the dacoit group’s outpost in the May Yu mountains since August 17, he said.
“The leader of the dacoit group, Abdula Kane, asked me if I could pay 500,000 taka,” the village head told DMG, an amount in the Bangladeshi currency equivalent to about $5,880. “As I told him I was poor, he told me I would be killed if I did not pay the money they asked. So, I contacted my cousin-brother in Bangladesh and I was released on the morning of September 3 after we promised to give them 300,000 taka.”
Mahmud Shofy added: “They asked about my education and how much it cost to become a village head. I replied that I was a graduate and that I did not need to pay money to be assigned as a village head.”
Five armed men broke down the door of the village head’s home at about 2 a.m. on August 17, telling his wife to hand over any gold items in the house. They abducted Mahmud Shofy and made off with about ticals worth of jewelry and other gold items, as well as rice and edible oil.
“They are Muslims. They covered my head but I could feel that I walked a concrete road and the old road. We arrived at their outpost at 11:30 a.m. Their living area was built underground and covered with green tarpaulin as a roof,” he said, describing the location where he was held captive for nearly three weeks.
“I was given rice and dried beef curry. And I had rice with bamboo shoot curry also. There were five security people. Two of them had pistols, another two had knives and the other one had a rifle. Two of them were using the Bangladeshi language and the rest were using Bengali language,” he said.
“However, the one who took me to a paddy field of Bawdigone village by motorbike when I was allowed to be released was an Arakanese,” he added.
With the village head having had his life threatened if he fails to pay the 300,000 taka, he and his family have expressed grave safety concerns, as have other Padin villagers.
Meanwhile, a village official was shot dead and two others were wounded in an attack by gunmen in the Pantawpyin Muslim village of Maungdaw Township in the early hours of September 2.
