A mosque was desecrated and demolished by the army in the Minbya township on Thursday. It was later made fit for offering prayers by the local villagers despite threats of violence by the army, though the structures lie demolished.
At around 10.30 am, a detachment of Tatmadaw personal came to the Rohingya settlement of Sambila Para and broke the mosque. The mosque was previously torched to ashes by a Rakhine mob during the riots of 2012, with the violence basically finishing off hundreds of years of Muslim civilization and presence in the area. Local Muslims managed to rebuilt the mosque before the army once again destroyed it on Thursday.
Sambila Para and other Rohingya settlements in the Minbya township are isolated Muslim neighbourhoods which are surrounded on all sides by a hostile Rakhine population, many of its leaders who are openly calling for the killings of the remaining Muslim population. Unlike the frontier townships where Rohingyas were massacred despite their overwhelming majority, Minbya and other places do not have a nearby border to which to escape at a time when many Rohingya activists are warning of a doomsday scenario.
Much of the Muslim population in Minbya has been driven out over the years since Burmese independence with the worst atrocities taking place in 2012.
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