Residents of a village in northern Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township have been searching frantically for two members of their local primary school’s staff who went missing late last week.
Thirty-four-year-old headmaster Bo Win and 27-year-old Ohnmar Kyaw, a teacher at the same school in the village of Thin Baw Hla, disappeared last Thursday while on their way to the town of Maungdaw to attend an administrative meeting.
The pair were on one of three motorcycles that were travelling together when they fell behind because their vehicle couldn’t keep up with the other two, members of the group told Myanmar Now.
Maung Shwe Tun, the village administrator, said that he and the others making the trip waited for the two teachers to catch up, but when they didn’t, they began to search for them.
“We waited a long time, but they never arrived. We tried calling their phones, but all we got was a message saying they were in an area without service, so we went back to look for them,” he said.
Local residents who joined the search said they later found the motorcycle near Zee Pin Chaung, a village not far from the Bangladesh border.
“We found the missing motorcycle near a jackfruit tree that is about a five-minute walk from the entrance to Zee Pin Chaung,” said one local who did not want to be named.
Other items belonging to Ohnmar Kyaw, including a comb, books and shoes, were discovered the next day in a wooded area near the village of Kyauk Chaung, which is also close to Zee Pin Chaung, according to a teacher who took part in the search.
Another teacher who later called Ohnmar Kyaw’s phone again said that it was answered by a man who demanded to meet with education officials.
Aung San Kyaw, a township education officer, confirmed this information, but declined to comment on reports that a ransom had been demanded.
“We’ve heard that contact has been made with the other side. We will tell you more later, but right now we have to talk with the villagers and the families. The families of the victims have arrived in Maungdaw, so we are trying to calm them down,” he said.
Because of the location of the incident, speculation has been rife on social media that it might involve members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a group that has carried out attacks on police and military targets in the area in the past.
In tweet posted on Monday, Twan Mrat Naing, the leader of the Arakan Army (AA), directly accused ARSA of kidnapping the pair, calling the move “a grave disservice to fellow Muslims” stranded in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.
Later the same day, ARSA denied that it had anything to do with the disappearances, saying that it condemned “this heinous crime against the two Rakhine schoolteachers.”
It also accused Twan Mrat Naing of using the incident to stir up resistance to the repatriation of Rohingyas who fled “clearance operations” by the military in 2017.
According to one Maungdaw resident, there is a heavy military presence in the area where the two schoolteachers went missing.
“The place where the victims were taken is on an important road in northern Maungdaw Township. The junta has clashed with both the AA and ARSA on that road multiple times,” he said.
Meanwhile, people involved in the search for the missing teachers say that regime officials have so far played no role in helping to find them.
“We used to see junta tactical officers coming and going all the time, but since the teacher and the headmaster disappeared, both soldiers and members of the border guard force are nowhere to be seen,” said one teacher who wanted to remain anonymous.
“We’ve even heard that they were ordered not to come out. But it would be much easier if they helped,” he added.
