July 8, 2017
Maungdaw- Since Wednesday, a huge military detachment has taken up positions in the restive village tract of Nsa Sa Gru in Northern Maungdaw from where they are seizing mobile phones from locals, according to our correspondent in the area.
The military first made a local school their base from where they spread out and started stopping and searching people on the roads outside the village. Anyone who had a mobile phone was accused of being linked with terrorists, abused in foul language, and threatened with dire consequences if they disclosed the incident.
Only one of the victim is from Nsa Sa Gru, the rest were travellers ambushed by the army.
While many Rohingyas carry Bangladesh SIM cards to keep in touch with their relatives across the border where much of the populace is based, all the phones seized had Burmese SIM cards, according to one source.
Nsa Sa Gru was one of the first villages to be attacked in the operation starting from October 9. In the first week, a huge military force with heavy weapons attacked the village firing randomly at civilians, killing scores of villages indiscriminately. Naturally the very sight of the Tatmadaw sends panic waves across the local populace who are keeping their distance from the military personal.
Locals have also been deprived of their livelihood since the operation, thus creating the grounds for a humanitarian catastrophe.
