By The Rohingya Post

On October 8, Arakan Army (AA) shot a renowned Rohingya man to death in Gu Dar Pyin village, Buthidaung, Rakhine State.

Sheikul Islam, 48, was among the Rohingya villagers who were forced to take refuge in a nearby village after fighting broke out between Myanmar Military and Arakan Army stationed in his village on September 25.

According to a number of villagers, Mr. Sheikul Islam was killed by the Rakhine militant group while returning to his refuge after feeding pets and animals left behind in his house in Gu Dar Pyin.

Mr. Skeikul Islam had studied and graduated from University of Sittwe with Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science in Physics. He was serving as a volunteer teacher in his village until his death.

For 15 months, Mr. Skeikul Islam was detained in Buthidaung Prison and severely tortured by Myanmar Military at the heights of campaigns of genocide against Rohingya in 2016.

The killing of Mr. Skeikul Islam comes after a series of abuses and crimes that have been ‘deliberately’ committed against the Rohingya population by Arakan Army in Buthidaung township.

On September 23, at least four Rohingya including two women and eight-year-old girl were severely injured in the clashes between Myanmar Military and Arakan Army both of which have chosen Rohingya village Haran Hali as their battlegrounds.

September 25, Rohingya villagers from Gu Dar Pyin were forced to flee as the fighting between the two armed forces intensified in the Rohingya village. Mr. Sheikul Islam was among them.

On September 8, two Rohingya families, mostly women and children, fled into Bangladesh seeking refuge after going through harrowing abuses at the hands of both Myanmar Military and Arakan Army in Buthidaung. Dildar Begum (aged 20) whose husband was killed by Arakan Army, has recounted that the militant group had attempted to sexually abuse her and lured her to convert to Buddhism after killing her husband Shahidullah. Abul Wafa, another man who fled along with Dildar Begum, has also said, “whenever Rakhine rebels see beautiful [Rohingya] women, they try to abuse them.”

Arakan Army has been accused of serious cases of sexual abuses and rapes against Rohingya women and girls in Rakhine State, where the militant group also heightens abductions and extortions from the Rohingya community.

On October 8, 25-year-old Raul Amin who lives on selling chicken, was abducted by Arakan Army in Tha Peik Taung village tract, Myauk Ywar, Buthidaung while he went out to buy livestock. A day before Raul Amin’s abduction, U Mohammed Salim from Taung Ywa village was serious injured in a land mine planted at the Rohingya village.

Arakan Army continues to deny the well-documented allegations of killings, causing bodily harms, use of Rohingya villages as battlegrounds, planting land mines around them, destructions of physical structures, abductions, extortions, sexual abuses and rapes.

Many human rights observers warn the threats posed by Arakan Army on the remaining Rohingya population in Myanmar, and call on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to include “all the arm [sic] groups in Arakan State” as the World Court has already placed provisional measures on Myanmar to protect the Rohingya population from the ongoing genocide.

Arakan Army was founded in April 2009 and has transformed into one of the largest armed groups in Myanmar under commander Major General Twan Mrat Naing. It was designated as “a terrorist group” by Myanmar in January 2019 before it was removed following the coup.