Myanmar conflict shadow falls on Hindus, minorities

A New Year's Eve drone attack killed seven civilians and injured four at a Hindu temple near Myanmar's Bago Region's Phyu Town, according to Arakan Army sources.

- Jayanta Roy Chowdhury

Other sources confirmed that the Myanmar Army launched airstrikes and the drone attack in at least five places in Myanmar on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, killing at least 20 people, including the temple attack in Bago, which borders the Rakhine region, now over-run by the rebel Arakan army.

Myanmar Hindu Union released a statement denouncing the targeting of a Hindu religious site and the Hindu community.

"One can only wait and watch to understand why this happened. This could have been a collateral damage inflicted in a war zone. But one is also reminded that the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army had in 2017 massacred some 99 Hindus in Rakhine state," said Maj Gen Alok Deb, former deputy director general of the Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis.

While massacring Hindu villagers, the ARSA had reportedly proclaimed that they believed the unarmed Hindu minority and Arakanese or Rakhine people to be "the same".