Narinjara news

Rohingya rapist murderers nabbed: one absconding

Sittwe, 20th December: Three of the four Muslim Rohingya fishermen rapists who killed two Rakhine mother and daughter after rape in the second week of November in the mouth of the Kaladan River have been nabbed in the first week of December, according to our correspondent from Sittwe. As the authority has imposed a news blackout on the incidence there have been many speculations and dissatisfaction among the Buddhist and Muslim communities in the capital of Rakhine State in the western part of Burma. A tense situation still prevails among the townsmen and the rumour resulting from the news black-out is spreading to other towns and villages in the state.

The leader of the group of four was arrested from a tea shop at Nazirwa village, Rohingya quarter of Sittwe. Acting on a tip-off the officer in charge of Police Station No.2 nabbed him while he was planning to flee to Bangladesh. Two other accomplices were later arrested by the Police Station No.2. According to sources in the police department, they were preparing to escape to Bangladesh in a hired motorboat owned by a Rohingya. The owner of the boat, a Rohingya informer of the Military Intelligence has also been on the run since the seizure of the boat.

According to the confession given by the three arrested to the police, four of the fishermen attacked the broken down engine boat where the two Rakhine women and two Rakhine boatmen were aboard. While two of them raped the two women the other two boatmen attacked with knife and one of the two boatmen was able to jump into the river. After rape, the four Rohingya Muslim fishermen looted all the gold ornaments belonging to the women and then stabbed the women in the breasts and their genitalia and threw them into the water. The confession given by the three arrested rapist murderers to the police testified to the post mortem report of the recovered two bodies, the source told our correspondent. Later the rapists sank the boat to remove any testimony. The leader of the gang of the four Rohingya rapists was released from prison just two months ago he was sentenced on charges of murder.

One boatman was later picked up by another passing boat and was admitted into the Sittwe State Hospital. The incident was taken up seriously and a night time curfew was imposed in the state capital. Meanwhile as soon as the annual examinations of the first and second year examinations were taken, the distance education college students were forced to pack up and go back home on eleven motor launches and thirty buses the same day, the 26th November. Though the students were reluctant to go back to their respective homes as there was a storm warning that day, the military and police ordered the students to vacant the student halls immediately.

The news black-out imposed about the incident and the way the students were hastily sent home has given birth to speculations and till now the general people have not stopped to blow the matter out of proportions. Discontent especially among the Rakhine community runs deep, which may turn violent at any moment, our correspondent added. But some of the leaders of the Rakhine community have been trying to make people understand by telling them not to act on any rumours or exaggerations resulting from the news black-out and tactless handling of the matter. #