Hindu women return from Bangladesh, recall horrific massacre
Eight Hindu women arrive back Myanmar together with their children. Photo: MNA
Eight Hindu women and eight children who were abducted by ARSA extremist terrorists to an IDP camp in Bangladesh were brought back to Myanmar yesterday and gave their accounts of a bloody massacre by Muslim terrorists that killed at least 45 Hindu men who ended up in mass graves, according to local authorities.
The eight Hindu women who witnessed the killings of Hindu villagers from Yebawkya Village by extremist terrorists on 25th August were returned to Myanmar with a police escort following the government’s demand to bring back them through diplomatic channels during the visit to Bangladesh on 2 and 3 October of a delegation led by the Union Minister for the State Counsellor’s Office.
The eight women — Rica, 25, Onnica, 20, Fawmila, 18, Gaungga 20, Gura Puni, also known as Rushila, 19, Bina Falar, 22, Puja alias Rabia, 18 and Raj Kumari, 15, recounted their experiences on 25th August. A group of about 500 Muslims terrorists led by a foreigner in black clothing and Noru Lauk from Khamaungseik Village entered their homes in Yebawkya village at about 8 am on 25th August and attacked. They took away their belongings, jewellery and mobile phones.
Members of the terrorist mob repeated, “This is not your village. It is our territory. We are the sole owners of this land. You all are same with the Myanmar Armed Forces and police members. We will murder Buddhists and all of you who worship the statues made of bricks and stones.
All Hindu villagers were then divided into two groups, according to gender. Their hands were tied and they were taken to Bawtala Village.
When they neared Bawtala Village, the women said they saw two pits, with a third pit being dug. The terrorists then killed all the Hindu men, slashing their throats, cutting them into pieces and throwing them into the mass graves.
The graves were discovered on 24 and 25 September after security forces received information about slaughtered Hindus who were buried in shallow graves.
The series of attacks on 25 August prompted some 30,000 Myanmar citizens in northern Rakhine to flee south to Mrauk U, Sittway, Kyauktaw, and Minbya, while hundreds of thousands of Muslims fled to Bangladesh border.
The surviving Hindu women said the lives of eight girls and women were saved because of their beauty, according to the eyewitnesses.
“Those girls are beautiful. We must force them into Islam”, Norulauk, the leader of the terrorists, allegedly said, according to the eyewitnesses. The females who were spared ranged in age from 15 to 25, the Hindu women said.
In the presence of the eight remaining Hindu girls who were spared, ARSA terrorists brutally killed the Hindu people from Yebaukkya Village. One group was killed between 12 noon to 6 pm and buried in the pits. A second group of eight Hindu females and their children were taken to the cow ranch near Bawtalar Village and killed. A three-year-old boy named Phawlar, son of Ma Yi Kha, who was included in the group, saw his father’s throat slit with knife before he was killed.
The boy allegedly told others, “Pa Pa halar (my father was beheaded)”. Hindu girls and children were guarded by five Bengalis, while other Bengalis left to attack and torch police camps. The surviving Hindu women remembered that the remaining five Muslims were Rawphi and Phelrana from Bawtalar Village, Rulia, Mamud, Arlaung and Zubai from Yebaukkya Village.
At about 12 pm, a number of Muslim terrorists returned and took eight Hindu women and young children to the house of Raw Phi in Bawtalar Village. Until 26 August, five people guarded the house. Wielding their swords, the Muslim watchmen threatened them, saying: “This is our country. It is not of you ethnics. We will occupy this country.”
Even though the Hindu religion forbids them from eating meat, the Hindus were forced to eat meals of rice and beef. During their arrests, there were many Muslim Bengalis at the house and they were taught the lifestyle and behaviours of Muslim women. At about 3pm on 27 August, five watchmen led by Raw Phi took away the eight Hindu women and children. They arrived at the border fence at about 5pm and cut the barbed wire. As some Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB) troops arrived there at that time, they went to a hill and spent the night. At about 6am on 28 August, they crossed the border into Bangladesh and were taken by car to Kutuparlaung refugee camp. They reportedly arrived there at 11 am.
The Hindus were kept together with Muslims at the Kutuparlaung refugee camp and forced to wear burqas, the traditional dress of Muslim women. At about 1pm, foreign media (speaking in English) conducted interviews. The Hindus were told to tell the media that men and their families were killed by the army and ethnics. They had to flee fearing that they would be killed by the army troops. They were threatened that their children’s throats would be slashed unless they said as they were told.
The surviving women said a Hindu girl, 15-year-old Ma Raj Kumari, was being forced to marry a Muslim man, Barbu, who working at the camp. This was reported to Hindu leader Shaw Phaw Nam Shaw Mar Raw Ni living in Bangladesh, who learned that Hindus were being converted to Islam. The religious leader contacted a member of the BGB and immediately went to the camp. There, the eight Hindu women and children were found. The Muslim terrorists had fled.
The Hindu women and children were taken from Kutuparlaung Camp to a BGP Camp where they spent the night. A Hindu monk came and took them from the BGP Camp and sheltered them at his house the following day. On 30 August, officials of the Bangladeshi government took them back to Kutuparlaung Camp, saying that they would provide relief supplies for them. The eight Hindu women and children were accommodated at a chicken farm inside the refugee camp, and a Bangladeshi Hindu man was assigned to guard them.
On 19 September, one of eight Hindu women was able to contact her brother-in-law in Maungtaw by phone and told him the location of the scene where Hindu followers, including her husband, were killed. On 26 September, she was able to contact Hindu religious leader U Ni Mal in Sittway, who suggested returning them to Myanmar with the assistance of Myanmar security forces.
The women consulted and left the camp on the pretext of visiting a Hindu religious festival. They arrived back in Myanmar safe and sound with the assistance of Myanmar security forces.
With the eight Hindu women and the children safely returned to Myanmar, authorities are providing them with necessary assistance, officials said. Because of their tragic accounts of the inhumane acts and brutal slaughtering by extremist Muslim terrorists, it is hoped that the motives and intentions of the attackers is exposed, authorities said.—GNLM
The post “This area is our territory”: ARSA extremist terrorists appeared first on Global New Light Of Myanmar.