Anti-Muslim Violence Erupts in Myanmar
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Jumat, 19 Oktober 2018 23:35 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Rangoon – At least one person was killed and 10 others injured after a group of Buddhist burned hundred of houses and overrun two mosques.
The violent act occured on Tuesday, April 30, in Okkan, 110 kilometers north of Rangoon, continuing the anti-Muslim attacks since March 2013.
In Chauk Tal, a village in the outskirts of Okkan, fire continues to burn down buildings on Tuesday night, local time, as hundreds of people screamed in fear and tried to douse off the flames with makeshift tools.
Chauk Tal residents said that around 400 Buddhists armed with bricks and sticks stormed their village.
"We hadn't really seen [violence] in this [central] part of town," said Al Jazeera correspondent Scott Heidler from Bangkok.
Heidler reported that the Buddhist mobs targeted Muslim shops and mosques. Local police deployed around 20 officers to guard the area.
In Okkan, two mosques were overrun and looted. More than 100 Muslim homes in three villages were burned down."They came around 1 am and most of the people were from this town, not outsiders. There were approximately 50 of them," said Khin Maung Than, a 60-year-old shopkeeper in Okkan.
AL JAZEERA | CHOIRUL
