Yangon [Myanmar]: Rohingya insurgents on Saturday launched an assault on the Myanmar Army, attacking its truck in the restive state of Rakhine, and injured five soldiers in the process.
According to Al-Jazeera, a spokesperson for the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for the truck attack.
A Myanmar’s government source said: “A vehicle was attacked by 20 insurgents from the mountain, by using homemade mines and small arms.”
An article in the Frontier Myanmar magazine reported that six soldiers were injured and hospitalised. At least, one soldier was reported to be in a very critical condition.
Rohingyas are a Muslim minority ethnic group in Myanmar. They have been regarded by many majority Buddhists as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Also, the Rohingyas have been persecuted by the Buddhists and the security forces.
As of December 2017, an estimated 6,55,000 Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh to avoid the persecution from the security forces that started in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in August last year.
There are more than 3,00,000 Rohingyas living in Bangladesh, who fled in earlier waves of violence from the Myanmarese Government since the last three decades.
The United Nations has called the violence against civilians ‘ethnic cleansing’, but the Myanmarese Government rejected the claims. (ANI)