ISLAMABAD – United Nations said that more than 27,000 Rohingya Muslims fled violence in Myanmar in recent days, as corpses of people drowned in desperate attempts to cross the border river washed up on Bangladeshi soil Friday.
As per media reports, a further 20,000 Rohingya have massed along the Bangladeshi frontier, the UN added in a statement late Thursday, but are barred from entry as they run from burning villages and Myanmar army operations.
Rumors of massacres and the systematic torching of villages by security forces as well as by militants have further amplified tensions, raising fears that communal violence in Rakhine state is spinning out of control.
Rights groups alleged a massacre of Rohingya occurred on Sunday afternoon in the village of Chut Pyin in Rathedaung township, led by Myanmar security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs.
Fortify Rights, an NGO with a focus on Myanmar, said eyewitnesses allege mobs shot and hacked down Rohingya villagers including children in a five-hour “killing spree”.
“The civilian government and military need to do everything in their power to immediately prevent more attacks,” Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights said in statement.-Online
