By KPN News
January 06, 2014
Maungdaw,
Arakan State: Over two thousand Buddhist people including monks, government
officers and staff, local people led by U Kyi San, Maungdaw Township
Administration officer (TAO) went to “Kasim Mountain Tip”, under Phar Wut
Chaung village tract of Maungdaw north yesterday, according to a local elder named Mamun Ali ( not real
name).
“On
that day, Buddhist People were starting to go there from 4:00 am to 2:00 pm by
cars, motor bikes and even on foot. All the people were wearing same dresses –
T shirts and marked on their shits ---climbers of hill top ‘Aung Mingala’.”
The
TAO officer needs to hold a meeting on the hill top and wants to announce with
loudspeaker to rename the ‘Kasim Mountain’ into “Aung Mingala Mountain.” As a
result, they held a meeting on the mountain tip yesterday in the aiming of to
change topographical change, said another local trader who denied to be named.
For
the meeting, the local village administration officers--- U Tun Tun Win and U
Kamal Hussain - were preparing for the meeting on 4th January. They forcibly
collected chairs, tools, wooden poles, bamboos, firewood, vegetables and
chicken from nearby villagers for the guests. They also made tents for the
meeting by forced labor of villagers and also collected 100 kgs of chicken per
village. The villagers also have to clear path of the Mountain and all these
were done by the order of TAO of Maungdaw Town, the reader more added.
On
the hill top of the ancient Kasim Mountain, a small pagoda was built in 2003 by
Nasaka (former Burma border security force) headquarters, sources said.
Why,
the thousands of Buddhist people especially went to visit Kasim Raja Tongi
(Kasim Mountain tip), which is nearby Thay Chaung village under the Puwet
Chaung village tract of Maungdaw Township, asked a youth from the locality.
It
is historically known Kasim Raja Tongi (Tip) because once a great Rohingya
revolutionary leader named Kasim Raja (king) established camp on the tip of the
mountain. He was famous in fighting against the Burmese military in the period
of Prime Minister U Nu. At that time, he controlled all the rural areas of
Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung Townships except main towns. He belonged to
Udaung village of Maungdaw south.
Even,
a delegation from Japan visited this place to observe the camp situation.
Villagers
believe that, the government will build a pagoda along with a monastery on the
tip of the mountain so that they want to change its name and topographical
change. There will be also model villages and confiscation of lands from
Rohingya farmers, said a Rohingya leader from Maungdaw Town.
Security forces stand guard in monastery on August 17 (Photo/EMG)
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