The father of a Myanmar high school student hospitalized in restive Rakhine state’s Kyauktaw township days after being detained for three hours by government soldiers said Tuesday that he is suing the military for allegedly brutally beating the boy, a move that prompted swift legal counteraction by the armed forces, RFA reported.

Soldiers from Myanmar Army Battalion 539 detained 16-year-old Zaw Naing Naing Htay from Kyauktaw’s Pyi Taw Thar ward at 4 p.m. on Feb. 21 and released him at 7 p.m. after he showed them proof that he was scheduled to take his 10th-grade examinations, the boy’s father Shwe Sein Oo told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

Kyauktaw is one of several townships in Rakhine state where government soldiers have engaged in hostilities with the rebel Arakan Army (AA). Myanmar Army soldiers have been known to detain for questioning civilians whom they suspect of having a connection to the Arakan fighters.