By The Rohingya Post

On May 19, two Rohingya fishermen were killed in a gunfire at the hands of Myanmar Forces in Ah Nauk Ye village, Pauktaw, Rakhine State.

Four more fishermen are arrested and taken to an unknown location.

The young fishermen aged between 15 and 25, went for fishing in a river off Ah Nauk Ye village with a boat. A security officers’ speed boat chased after the fishermen and fired shots to the boat at 11:30 PM local time, according to a relative of a deceased fisherman under anonymity.

Mohammed, aged 15, son of Abdu Rashid and Kalu, aged 16, son of Noor Mohammed, were killed in the gunfire.

Their bodies were taken to Sittwe General Hospital where the post-mortem was performed. The bodies were later handed over to the relatives of Mohammed and Kalu on May 20.

Bodies of Mohammed (left) and Kalu (right) at Sittwe General Hospital mortuary

The four arrested fishermen are identified as –

Saddar, aged 16, s/o Karimuddin

Shafi Alam, aged 20, s/o Mohamemd Kasim

Hafiz Huson, aged 21, s/o Sayed Huson

Halaya, aged 25, s/o Kasim

Rohingya civilians have been under the extreme restrictions of movement and livelihood since June 2012 when the majority of Rohingya in central and southern parts of Rakhine State were forced into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.

The remaining Rohingya trapped within villages across the state, are forced to accept National Verification (NV) cards in order to have limited access to farming and fishing for livelihood. The cards which are overwhelmingly rejected by Rohingya, deny the rights to self-identity and consider the community as new immigrants, thus becomes a tool for further suppression and intimidation at the hands of security forces which according to the UN committed the gravest crimes – genocide and crimes against humanity.

According the source from the ground, the young Rohingya fishermen have denied to accept the cards fearing their identity being stripped of.