Nasaka Officers Shot at Villagers before Being Killed

Maung Aye
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Rathedaung: An officer and a private who were killed by villagers from Krakrokonetan Village in Rathedaung Township in western Burma’s Arakan State had reportedly shot at the villagers before they were killed.

A local villager close to Nasaka told Narinjara, on a condition of anonymity, that six of the villagers were injured by gunshots from the Nasaka personnel.

“They were three personnel who clashed with the Muslim villagers. Two of them were caught and killed by the villagers while one escaped from the incident. But six of the villagers were injured," said the villager.

The murdered personnel have been identified as Second Lieutenant Myat Swe and Private Aung Kyaw Zaw who were recently transferred from the army and police force to the Nasaka force stationed in Angumaw in southern Rathedaung Township.

According to a source, these Nasaka personnel went to the village to arrest cattle smugglers on a villager’s secret tip.

“They had gone to the village according to a villager’s secret tip that the cattle smugglers would be arriving in the village soon. They arrested one of the suspected smugglers and left him detained in the village administrator’s house and continued to look for the rest and the cattle. When they came back, they could not found the arrested one and beat and interrogated the administrator and his family members. Then some of the family members shouted that the Nasaka were robbers and the incident started when the villagers came and besieged the house and caught them”, he said.

He said that six of the villagers were injured when the Nasaka officers fired at villagers who flocked to the house.

“All those injured and involved in killing the Nasaka have already fled from the village, most likely to the neighboring Bangladesh because most of the people who are usually involved in this kind of incident usually flee there. The remaining villagers have returned the guns of those killed to the Nasaka forces”, he said.

As a result, more Nasaka personnel have besieged the village, arrested some villagers and are still investigating the incident.
http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=3159