armed AA fighters storming homes, separating men from their families, and taking them away
with no warning or justification. Those who resist or attempt to flee face risk and retaliation
against their families. As a result, they would leave the entire family or the community in a state
of fear and helplessness. Mohammad Imran estimates that 3,000 to 4,000 Rohingya men were
abducted from various villages in Buthidaung and Rathidaung townships alone. Saifullah, a
17-year-old man whose testimony is very relevant, narrates his own story in the following
manner. In my village, Dabboriyong, the AA abducted at least 15 to 20 individuals, including one
of my uncles. These abductions were carried out with extreme brutality. Most of the people taken
were either killed or disappeared, with little to no information reaching their families. The AA
targets the Rohingya out of deep-seated hatred, falsely accusing us of being outsiders from
Bangladesh and treating us as enemies without cause. The objective behind these abductions
appears to be part of a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing and terror. The AA often uses the
justification that Rohingya are enemies or infiltrators. In reality, the goal seems to be to eliminate
the presence of Rohingya from Rakhine by instilling fear, destroying families, and using victims
as human shields in their conflict with the Myanmar military.
Facing a similar fate, Saifullah, in his testimony, elaborates that he was also taken away.
Describing his captivity life, he states, “I was abducted from my home around midnight, four
months ago (September 2024), by the AA. They gave no explanation and we were too terrified to
question them asking anything that would only result in brutal beatings. I was taken, along with
nine other young men from his village, to a military camp that the AA had captured from the
Myanmar army. There, we were interrogated and tortured.” He further asserts that they repeatedly
beat him with wires, sticks, punched and kicked him while accusing us of having links with the
Myanmar military or ARSA. They wanted to know if ARSA had any presence in our village. “We
were given barely any food or water, and sometimes we had to survive on tree leaves. The living
conditions were horrific, and he describes his abduction as a deliberate form of psychological and
physical punishment for simply being a member of the Rohingya community.
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