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Yangon/Â AFP
A new Rohingya insurgency in Myanmar’s Rakhine is a “game-changer†for the troubled state, conflict experts said Thursday, warning the army’s crackdown risks setting off a spiral of violence and radicalisation among the Muslim minority. Troops have taken control of the north of the state since October 9 when armed men carried out raids on posts along the Bangladesh border, killing nine police in a series of coordinated attacks.
At least 27,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since with stories of mass-killings, rape and torture at the hands of security forces which have heaped pressure on Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration.
Myanmar’s government has roundly rejected the accusations of abuse, saying the military is hunting down hundreds of “terrorists†behind the raids and the weapons they stole. The International Crisis Group (ICG) said the attackers were a Saudi-backed group called Harakah al-Yaqin, which has spent years recruiting and training fighters in Bangladesh and northern Rakhine.