11 Arrested After Mob Attacks Police to Demand Rape Suspect's Handover

By Zarni Mann 19 March 2018

MANDALAY — Police in Mandalay Region’s Aungmyaythazan Township said they arrested 11 people on Sunday accused of joining a mob that attacked a police station holding a suspected child rapist arrested earlier in the day.

“When the crowd got bigger, the police blocked the road to the police station. Some angry men destroyed the bamboo barriers and started shouting to the police to hand over the rapist,” said U Paw Lu, a township administrator.

“Later they threw stones and bricks at the police who tried to dispersed the crowd by opening fire into the air to scare them away,” he added.

Police say they arrested 11 of the rioters and have filed related charges against them.

Earlier in the day, police arrested Kyaw Soe, 38, for the rape of a 7-year-old girl in Aungmyaythazan Township’s Amarahtarni quarter on Thursday. According to a neighbor, Daw Khin Khin, the girl complained of pain and bleeding to her mother on Sunday and was rushed to a doctor who discovered that she had been raped.

“The girl told her mother only on Sunday afternoon and police arrested him. We are waiting here to find out how the police will charge him. We want the death sentence for rapists like him,” she said in front of the police station.

Police said they filed a rape charge against Kyaw Soe and were keeping him in custody.

Coincidentally, a campaign group advocating for tougher penalties for rapists had visited Amarahtarni on Sunday. The national campaign has picked up steam following a number of child rape and rape-murder cases in recent months.

In February, a 2-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Mandalay’s Madaya Township by a 23-year-old man. Locals staged a protest to urge authorities to sentence the man to death.