An unarmed police private fled as a Rakhine Buddhist mob attacked a group of Rohingya men he was accompanying in Sittwe on Tuesday afternoon.
Home affairs ministry spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe told Reuters that the inexperienced police private tried to stop the attack before realizing he was unable and fleeing to his police station, leaving the seven Rohingya men to be pelted with bricks by dozens of attackers.
Maung Nu, also known as Monir Ahmad, 55, was killed in the attack, the State Counsellor’s Office reported on Tuesday evening. Two others remain hospitalized.
So far, no one has been arrested for the attack, but the home affairs ministry says it is now being investigated.
Since the outbreak of communal violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State in 2012, Rohingyas have been confined to IDP camps or special wards within towns. Muslims and Buddhists require special authorization to enter each other’s neighborhoods.
The men who were attacked on Tuesday had travelled from the Darpaing IDP camp on the outskirts of Sittwe to give statements on a court case in the city. After giving their statements, they went with their police escort to buy a boat from a Rakhine man in Ywar Gyi Mrauk ward, which is off-limits to Muslims without permission.
An argument arose between the Rohingya men and the boat-seller, which attracted the attention of other Rakhines in the vicinity, who began throwing stones at the Rohingyas.
Colonel Myo Thu Soe told Reuters that the Muslim men were not authorized to be in that neighborhood, despite their police escort.
Security forces in Sittwe are now on “high alert”, but local authorities say the situation has calmed.
Ywar Gyi Mrauk ward administrator Htay Win Tun told DVB that the attack did not reflect the current climate in Sittwe, adding that the tensions in the city are in no way similar to the conditions that led to the communal violence of 2012.
