Maungdaw — The deadbody of an eleven-year-old Rohingya girl, who was allegedly raped, was found near mountainside at 'Ngan Chaung' village in Northern Maungdaw, on Wednesday (June 12), local villagers said.

The villagers suspect the BGP (Border Guard Police) from 'NaKhaKha 6 or Battery (Unit) 6' of gang raping her and murdering her afterwards. 

The girl — identified as Samira, 11, d/o U Noor Boshor and Daw Zahida — went out of her house at 'Ngan Chaung' village at around 4pm on Tuesday (June 11) to bring back her family-owned goats grazing outside the village and afterwards she went missing. Around this time, there were these BGP from 'Battery 6' vandalizing an abandoned houses at the hills top at 'Ngan Chaung's Northern Hamlet.'

Two local women stated that they saw the same  BGP (Border Guard Police) personnel from 'Battery 6' carrying a human-like-thing wrapped in black tarpaulin sheet on their truck around 6pm. However, they mistook it for a wood log and didn't take it seriously as they didn't know of the missing girl then.

As the girl didn't return home even till the sunset (of June 11), her family lodged a report to 'Yae-Kyaw Bridge' BGP (Border Guard Police) Camp. They looked for her in and around the village and nearby the mountainside areas in the evening till night, along with some BGP personnel from this camp. She was not found.

Next morning, her family and other villagers began to look for her from day break. And her deadbody was found inside a bush nearby mountainside about 500-feet away from her house at the Northern Hamlet of 'Ngan Chaung' village.

"The BGP from NaKhaKha 6 (Battery 6), located just a small river across and one furlong away from her hamlet, seem to have gang raped her for the whole night and murdered her afterwards. And then, her body was thrown inside the bush. The body was found with spilling blood her nose and mouth also" said an elderly villager at 'Ngan Chaung.'

The BGP from 'Yae Kyaw Bridge' camp took pictures of the deadbody and asked the family to send the body to the Maungdaw General Hospital for postmortem. After the postmortem, the body was handed back to her family who gave it funeral around 8pm (on June 12).

No official investigation on the rape and murder of the minor girl has been started yet.

According to the statements by the villagers, the BGP from the 'NaKhaKha 6 (Battery 6)' in plain clothes frequently come to the Northern Hamlet of 'Ngan Chaung' village to vandalize the abandoned houses. And they often drag Rohingya owned livestock such as cattle and goats into these abandoned houses, slaughter them and take their meats away.

Hiding in these abandoned houses, they also often bodily harass Rohingya girls and women passing by. The villagers of 'Ngan Chaung' chased away three BGP from the 'Battery 6' as they were attempting to rape a local Rohingya woman in April, this year, a villager said.

Another villager said that in late April this year, they saw some BGP from the same battery unit dragging a Cow into an abandoned house. When they rushed towards it to see, they released the Cow and fled.

However, (human) semen was found on the Cow's body and around vaginal area. Therefore, the villagers suspect that they also gang raped the Cow.

The villagers also said that the BGP from the 'Yae-Kyaw Bridge' Camp behave good, unlike those from the nearby 'Battery (unit) 6' who indulge in barbaric and socially outrageous acts.

After around one million Rohingyas have been deported to Bangladesh through systematic Genocidal Campaign in last few years, only a handful of Rohingya community has remained in northern Maungdaw and other parts of Arakan State. They are now finding their lives in the State increasingly suffocating and challenging to survive.

[Reported by Min Naing Oo; Edited by M.S. Anwar]