Civilian Shot in Rakhine State

By Min Aung Khine / The Irrawaddy | June 27, 2018

SITTWE, Rakhine State — A civilian was shot by a military column on patrol in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township on Monday around noon.

U Aung Hla Sein, 68, an ethnic Arakanese local of the village of Kaing Gyi in Maungdaw Township, was shot while he was fishing with his son in a creek in the west of the village.

“The two said that they were shot at five times. The man was injured in his right thigh and was hospitalized,” administrator of Kaing Gyi village U Maung Than Cho told The Irrawaddy.

The creek where the two were fishing originates in the Mayu Mountains and empties into the Bay of Bengal. The pair was shot at by a military column of Light Infantry Battalion 551, which was patrolling in the area.

The mouth of the creek is off limits to the general public because it is adjacent to the Bay of Bengal and could be used by illegal immigrants and terrorists to enter Rakhine State, said Maungdaw Township administrator U Myint Khaing.

“The military has prohibited people from going to that area for security reasons. But the two went fishing there. Security personnel on guard shot in the air and called for them to come in but they didn’t. So, they shot at them. One of them was hit in his thigh,” he said, adding that the wound was not serious.

U Aung Hla Sein is still receiving treatment at Buthidaung Township hospital for the wound.

There are two Kaing Gyi villages in Zaw Ma Tet village tract in Maungdaw – one inhabited by ethnic Arakanese and the other by ethnic Mro.

There are 73 households with a population of 314 people in the Kaing Gyi village where ethnic Arakanese live.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.