banglanews24.com

DHAKA: Four people were killed on Friday in religious clashes in western Myanmar, where police opened fire and the authorities declared a curfew to tackle the escalating unrest, officials said.

Myanmar Muslim men hold up pictures of recent violence in the western Rakhine state, at a protest in Yangon on June 5. Four people have been killed in fresh clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in a fresh outbreak of religious tensions in western Myanmar, a government official said.

The latest victims are believed to have been killed by angry Muslims who torched Buddhist villages in Rakhine state along the Bay of Bengal.

“They were attacked with knives. A 65-year-old man was killed on the spot. The other three died in hospital as they were seriously injured. Those who were killed are Buddhists,” a government official who did not want to be named said.

State television announced late Friday a night-time curfew in the unrest-hit areas, home to large numbers of Rohingya, a Muslim group described by the United Nations as one of the world`s most persecuted minorities.

Tensions have flared in Rakhine since 10 Muslims on a bus were killed by an angry Buddhist mob on Sunday who believed mistakenly that the perpetrators of the recent rape and murder of a Rakhine woman were onboard.

Earlier Friday a different official said police in Rakhine had opened fire in an attempt to quell religious tensions in a town dominated by the stateless Rohingya.

“Police opened fire in Maungdaw in Rakhine state. There are no casualties,” the official said.

Religious clashes occur periodically in Myanmar, and Rakhine state — which has a large Muslim minority population — is a flashpoint for tensions.

Buddhists make up some 89 percent of the population of Myanmar, with Muslims officially representing four percent.

The violence threatens to overshadow reconciliation efforts since a series of dramatic political reforms following the end of almost half a century of military rule last year.

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h/t Hermes