Naung Min Thu, Narinjara News, 2 October 2024

A father, his two sons, and his nephew fromKaing Gyi (Mro) minority village in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, have been reportedmissing after going fishing, according to local residents.

U Sai Win, 45; his kids Maung Lin Gyi, 15, andMaung Ah Mun, 12; and Maung D Kaw, 14, his brother's son, are the ones whoremain missing.

Residents claimed that the group went fishing at Let Wae Creek in theMayu Mountains at 8:00 am on September 30 and have not returned to thesettlement.  As of October 2, they have not been seen.

“Four family members—a father, his two sons, and anephew—are gone. They went fishing in Let Wae Creek in the Mayu Mountains, butthey never came back," a villager reported.

The night the family vanished, about ten young people lookedfor them but were unable to locate them.

More than sixty locals convened early onOctober 1st to conduct a thorough search deep within the Mayu forest. Localsclaim they found two sticks that were likely used to beat the missing people,along with some of their belongings.

“We discovered a child's hat and sticks thatwere used to beat the four of them where they were sitting. We could not locateanyone else. Everyone thinks they were arrested by ARSA members," statedanother local.

As of today, more than sixty folks are stilllooking for the people who went missing.

According to the locals, Let Wae Creek in theMayu Mountains is roughly a three-hour walk from Kaing Gyi (Mro) village,making the round trip take about seven hours.

The 130 households that make up Kaing Gyi (Mro)hamlet are home to about 900 Mroethnic people, all of whom depend on the Mayu forest's fish and frogforaging for a living.

In a separate incident, an 11-year-oldfifth-grader from the Maungdaw 4-mile ward was murdered on September 26. He wasstabbed in the right abdomen and suffered a head injury from being beaten bysticks.

The Arakan Army (AA) is currently carrying outan investigation to find the killers of the student, who are still at large.

Photo: KaingGyi (Mro) village.