By Kyaw Ye Lynn
YANGON, Myanmar (AA): The Myanmar government said at least 12 people, including five police officers, were killed on Friday in multiple assaults on border guard posts along Myanmar’s western border with Bangladesh.
The attacks were carried out by Rohingya militants overnight at 24 police stations and outpost in Maungdaw district in the northern part of Rakhien state, said a press release from Office of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday.
It confirmed that five police officers were killed during the attacks and two guns were stolen by attackers.
Militants also tried to break in the 552nd Light Infantry Battalion base around 3:00 am.
Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a miliant group which carried out similar attacks in the area last October, has claimed responsibility for the assaults on Friday.
“We have been taking our defensive actions against the Burmese marauding forces in more than 25 different places across the region,” the group said in a statement that went viral online among Rohingya activists.
ARSA said the attack was in response the raids, killing and looting by soldiers who have been deployed in the area following the deaths of seven villagers earlier this month.
“When their atrocities against the innocent people have reached beyond the point of our tolerance and they were about to launch attacks on us, we have to eventually step up to defend the helpless people and ourselves,” said the group.
The attacks came hours after the Advisory Commission led by ex-UN chief Kofi Annan urged Myanmar government to end the restrictions on Rohingya Muslims in the area.
After a year-long inquiry into the situation in Rakhine, the commission called for “urgent and sustained action on a number of fronts to prevent violence, maintain peace, foster reconciliation and offer a sense of hope to the state’s hard-pressed population.”
The region has seen simmering tension between its Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim populations since communal violence broke out in 2012.
[Archive Photo: Rohingya Musilms pump water at a well in Thet Key Pyin camp near Sittwe capital of Rakhine state on 2 May 2016. Photographer: Sitt Thway Naing/AA]
