YANGON — The bodies of six farmers—some shot dead and others with machete wounds—were found in southern Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State on Thursday morning, according to the information committee of the State Counselor’s Office.
The six farmers, from 50-household Kai Gyee village near Mayu mountain range, were found by Myanmar Army troops conducting security operations in the region, according to the police major.
They were ethnic Mro, a sub-ethnic group of Arakanese, he added.
Arakan National Party lawmaker U Maung Ohn, who represents Maungdaw Township in the Rakhine State parliament, told The Irrawaddy that reports in the morning stated that the two men were killed when militants attacked farmers on Thursday morning.
Four women also fled the scene but have not yet been found, he said, and another woman was critically injured but managed to return to the village and alert officials who called the border police, according to the lawmaker.
Local online publication Narinjara named eight villagers reportedly killed by alleged Muslim militants on Thursday, citing Kai Gyee village’s administrator U Sein Hla Maung.
