Five Distance Education University students who were arrested and taken away for no reason from Gandaryone Monastery in Danyawaddy (A) ward in Sittwe township, have been released.

The freed university students are Maung Bo Aung Khin (23), Maung Aung Lin Soe (20), Maung

Soe Min (21) from Myat Thauk village of Ponnagyun township, Maung Aung Nyein (21) and Maung Zaw Hlaing Oo (20) from Pe Si Nan village also in Ponnagyun.

A family member told Narinjara that all 5 were released in the evening of November 27.

“They didn’t know where they were brought from. They were left inside the monastery compound blindfolded. They are all safe and sound. The police station informed us to pick up their phones this evening”, he said.

Those five university students along with 4 other locals were arrested from monasteries by police and soldiers around midnight on November 11.

The 4 locals who were arrested with them have already been released since November 21. The

university students were released on November 27.

The arrested youths from Mya Thauk and Pe Sin Nan villages were attending computer, English and Korean speaking classes after passing the matriculation examination.

A total of 324 innocent Rakhine civilians were arrested by the Military Council in two-month periods in October and November to date but only 85 were released, and 239 are still detained

while more arrests are ongoing, Arakan Army (AA)’s spokesperson U Khaing Thu Kha said at a press conference held on November 28.