Maungdaw, Arakan
The Terrorist Arakan Army (AA) arrested two young Rohingya men on March 27 in Maungdaw Township, Arakan. Days later, residents found their bodies dumped in a nearby stream. Witnesses described unmistakable signs of torture and deliberate execution.
The victims were Mohammed Younus (right), 19, son of Boshir Ahmed, and Mohammed Salam (left), 22, son of Abdul Amin. Both men came from Tha Yet Oke village. They had spent the day working at a fishing lake in the area locally known as Abojah Fara. Consequently, they were returning home at around 7 p.m. when the Terrorist AA detained them.
“They were working at the fishing tank,” one eyewitness told local reporters. “When they were returning home, Terrorist AA saw them and reportedly beat them severely.” Their families received no information about their whereabouts for several days. Moreover, no charges, no hearings, and no legal process preceded their deaths.
When water levels in a nearby stream dropped, residents discovered the two bodies. The condition of the corpses exposed the savagery of the Terrorist AA’s actions. Witnesses confirmed that their hands were bound, cloth was stuffed into their mouths, and their eyes were covered. Furthermore, the bodies showed clear evidence of severe physical violence before death.
“They found them with their hands tied. Cloth was stuffed into their mouths,” a second eyewitness stated. Sources indicated the victims suffered prolonged torture before the Terrorist AA disposed of their bodies in the stream. These were not casualties of combat. These were two young men killed for walking home.
Residents who knew Mohammed Younus and Mohammed Salam described them as unremarkable in the best possible sense. They were ordinary young men. They worked. They tried to survive. “They were just living their lives and working to survive,” a community member said. The Terrorist AA murdered them for nothing more.
This killing follows a documented pattern. The Terrorist Arakan Army has systematically targeted Rohingya civilians across Maungdaw and Buthidaung since seizing control of large parts of Arakan. Arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings have become routine instruments of the Terrorist AA’s campaign against the Rohingya population. Moreover, international human rights bodies have documented these crimes in growing detail.
The Terrorist AA presents itself as a liberation movement. However, its treatment of Rohingya civilians tells a starkly different story. Arrests without cause, torture in custody, and bodies dumped in streams this is not governance. Consequently, the international community faces mounting pressure to name the Terrorist AA’s campaign against the Rohingya for what it is: a pattern of atrocity crimes requiring urgent accountability.
Mohammed Younus was 19 years old. Mohammed Salam was 22. They went to work. They never came home. The Terrorist Arakan Army killed them both.
