Citing the presence of outsiders in the village tract of Moidaung in Buthidaung, a contingent of BGP personal from the Yong Cong camp in Buthidaung entered the village tract on Monday and Tuesday, according to local sources. The BGP vowed to hunt down terrorists and launched a house by house search.
On the first day of the raid, the BGP ordered the villagers to provide and cook food for them on Tuesday when they would come again in search of the terrorists. So on Tuesday, the villagers had to give up many of their chickens and stored food to feel the bellies of the BGP men.
This has given rise to suspicions that the security forces only want the free food as it is common knowledge there are no outsiders in the village tract of Moidaung. Rohingya activists have long alleged that when security forces launch raid on a village, they often force locals to hand over and even cook food for the intruders.
Even before 2017, severe restrictions and surveillance on Rohingya villages meant that it was virtually impossible for such a large number of outsiders to enter a neighborhood without the knowledge of security forces, according to our correspondent in the area.
Locals are fearing more BGP raids as a tense atmosphere prevails in the area. Locals also say that they have lost most of their assets in 2017 and cannot afford to feed the security forces. Much of the populace in the area have already fled to Bangladesh following intense military operations.
