Artillery kills 2 Muslim villagers in Myanmar's Rakhine

YANGON

A Muslim man and his 8-year old son was killed by artillery that villagers believed was fired by Myanmar military in the country’s Rakhine state.

Local police officer confirmed that an artillery shell hit a home in Muslim-majority Alekyun village in Kyauk Taw Township on Tuesday, killing two Muslim villagers and wounding another.

“U Schaw Bee, his son and younger brother were in home when the shell hit it,” the officer from Kyauk Taw police station told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday, using a Myanmar honorific prefix (U) for older man.

“The father and his son died at the spot while brother was just injured,” said the officer on a condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The death was also reported on Wednesday by the local Narinjara news service, which mostly covers news from Rakhine, citing village tract administrator Win Hla Tun.

The report said that Schaw Bee, 38, and his son, 8, was killed while his brother, 15, was injured by the artillery shell on Tuesday.

It is still unclear whether Myanmar military or a Arakan Army -- a predominantly Buddhist ethnic group fighting for greater autonomy of the region -- fired the artillery shell on the village.

However, a villager said it was possibly fired by Myanmar military.

“Artillery shells fired by military frequently hit the villages in the area. So we believe this time too,” he told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Nay San Lwin, a coordinator of Free Rohingya Coalition, called on Myanmar military and Arakan Army to stop planting landmines in Rohingya villages or nearby lands and said that a man and his son were killed in a “bomb blast” in Kyauktaw Township.

A 10-year-old girl was also killed on Sunday when an armed clash between Myanmar military and Arakan Army broke out near Myauk Taung village in Kyauk Taw Township.

There have been reports of fighting coming from Rakhine on a daily basis since the Arakan Army launched synchronized attacks on police outposts in January, killing 13 officers.