On 25 August 2017, Hindu villages in a cluster known as Kha Maung Seik in the northern Maungdaw District of Rakhine State in Myanmar were attacked and 99 Bengali Hindu villagers were massacred by Muslim insurgents from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). A month later, the Myanmar Army discovered mass graves containing the corpses of 45 Hindus, most of whom were women and children.
The Myanmar authorities and international investigators blamed ARSA for the deaths. ARSA has denied responsibility and rejected Amnesty's report.
Background
Bengali Hindus constitute a minority group in Maungdaw District. With a population of around 5,000 they constitute about 1% of the population.
Killings
According to eyewitness accounts, on 25 August, unidentified men in black masks attacked the Hindu villages in Kha Maung Seik also known as Fwaira Bazar or Fakira Bazar. The men spoke several languages they could not identify, but they also spoke the dialect spoken by the Rohingyas and the Hindus. They objected to the official identity cards that were provided by the Myanmar authorities to the Hindus, stating that the Hindus should not have them.
The masked men took around 100 people hostage and forced them to march through the fields. They were led into a forest on a hill, where the insurgents separated eight women from the group of hostages, allegedly to set them aside for marriage to the insurgents later. The insurgents then blindfolded the remaining captives, tied their hands behind their back and tied their legs. The hostages then had their throats slit with knives by the insurgents. Three pits were dug by the insurgents, and the corpses were dumped inside.
Nine Hindu villages were burnt, resulting in more than 500 Hindu refugees fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. The Hindu villages of Kyeinchaung and Ngakhuya survived the arson attacks, and the villagers have returned.
Forced conversion
Ni Maul, a Hindu leader who helped Myanmar's authorities with the search of the bodies, told the media that the mass-graves were found from testimony of eight Hindu women whose lives were spared and brought to Bangladesh after they agreed to convert to Islam.
Four Hindu women in Bangladesh told Agence-France Presse that they were among the eight who escaped. They stated that they were forced to marry the attackers in order to save their lives and they were later taken to camps of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh.
The Hindu women stated that the militants found them beautiful and decided to convert them. They added that later the eight women along with children were taken to a house in Bawtalar village where they were forced to eat rice with meat, which is against some Hindu beliefs. They were then brought to Kutuparlaung refugee camp on 28 August where they were housed with Muslims and forced to wear burqas.
Exodus
Thousands of Hindus fled villages where they lived alongside Muslims and alleged they had been targeted by ARSA. Since the outbreak of the violence in Rakhine in August, 3,000 Hindus from Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships were internally displaced while 500 fled to Bangladesh. Rana Dasgupta, secretary of Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, stated that Hindu refugees had described murder of 86 Hindus. Hindus who fled the area told Agence-France Presse that masked men stormed their community and later buried the victims after hacking them to death. A Hindu woman stated that masked men dressed in black attacked her village near Kha Maung Seik and she fled to Bangladesh.
Local investigations
While authorities were preoccupied with ARSA's insurgent operations at the time, Kyaw Zaw Oo, a Rakhine State Hluttaw MP, investigated the massacre and posted a detailed account on his Facebook page on 13 September 2017. He was one of the first to alert domestic and international communities about the massacre.
Relief and rehabilitation
Bangladesh
When the local Bengali Hindus of Ukhia Upazila in Cox's Bazar District, came to know about Hindu refugees camping in the forest, they brought the Hindu refugees and provided shelter to them near a Hindu temple. A poultry farm was converted to a makeshift refugee camp, where around 300 Hindus were sheltered. The remaining 200 Hindus were provided shelter by the local Hindu families. The local Bengali Hindus provided donations for the daily meals to the Hindu refugees.