May 3, 2017
Maungdaw- A tense atmosphere is prevailing in the village tract of Koe Tan Kauk in Rathedaung as the Hlun Htein is arresting innocent civilians on false allegations of robbery.
Since April 25, 13 men, including a school student has been arrested and taken to the Hlun Htein camp where they were beaten and threatened with dire consequences if they did not come up with ransom money.
The amount of money paid for their release has varied from 100,000 to 500,000 kyats, depending on the financial ability of the arrested people.
All the arrested men and boys have been released.
The latest arrests occurred on Monday when two men, Abdur Rahim and Rahim Ullah were arrested in the daylight hours in two separate raids. Abdur Rahim was released following the payment of 100,000 kyats while Rahim Ullah had to pay 300,000 kyats.
The nature of the arrests has led to fears this will be a long term operation where many harass innocent villagers will be harassed with the purpose of making easy money for the Hlun Htein, say locals.
Multiple sources have confirmed that all the arrested men are dependent on logging or fishing for a living and have no connection with criminal activities.
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