Hakim a mosque committee member said: "The villagers had renovated the mosque and maqtab after they were destroyed by Cyclone Komen that hit Arakan from 29 to 31 July 2015. During that time many houses and paddy fields were destroyed across Arakan State."

After the cyclone President Thein Sein visited Arakan State and came to Buthidaung Township to see the victims of the cyclone. There, the Rohingya community asked the president about the destroyed mosques, maqtabs and madrasas (Arabic schools) and asked for permission to rebuild them. The president ordered the relevant local authorities to give approval for the renovation, according to Abdu Matalaf, a local elder from Buthidaung town.

So, villagers renovated some mosques and maqtabs destroyed by cyclone Komen, said Munaf a local businessman.

He said that on 14 November the local mosque committee members and some local elders were summoned to the Burma Border Guard Police (BGP) Area Number 6 camp in Maungdaw Township and ordered to destroy the mosque and Maqtab in Maung Nama village. They also had to sign a document confirming that they would destroy the mosque and maqtab when they returned to the village.

After signing the document the committee members and village elders were released from the camp. A village elder said that the villagers then only destroyed the maqtab on 15 November and not the mosque.

Shajid, a young man from Maung Nama Village said: "Villagers are worried about what sort of action the authorities will take."

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI