Fifteen days after murdering twenty Arakanese students, the Myanmar Air Force struck another religious structure in Arakan (Rakhine) on Friday, September 26.
At around 3:48 p.m. on September 26, Taungup's religious structure, which was formerly a military monastery, was struck by 500-pound bombs.
"There are rumors that the military may launch an air attack on it these days," a local philanthropist said. "There are reports that the monastery, which was once a military monastery, is currently occupied by the AA. Indeed, neither the monks nor any AA members lived there. I heard that after the fighting, the monks sometimes visit here, and some portions of the structures have been damaged.”
A 500-pound bomb dropped by a jet fighter partially destroyed the monastery, which is close to the site of the old Sa Ka Kha (5), a military base, in Taungup.
“The school buildings collapsed. The populace is unharmed. The junta forces bombed the religious structure since the AA employed them as ration stores,” he stated.
The bombing on the monastery came 15 days after the bomb blast that killed 20 students at the Pyinnyar Pan Khin and Amyin Thit private boarding houses in Thayet Ta Pin Village, Kyauktaw Township.
Around 1:05 a.m. on September 12, the Myanmar Air Force detonated two 500-pound bombs over the boarding houses of Pyinnyar Pan Khin Private High School and Amyin Thit Private High School in Thayet Ta Pin Village, Kyauktaw Township, where 20 pupils died and over 20 more were critically injured.
On August 4, the Myanmar military also bombed the AA-controlled towns of Taungup and Ma-i. At approximately 5 p.m. on August 13, a jet fighter bombed a location in the south of Taungup township as well as Ma-i township, which is linked to Taungup.
The military council has been shelling coastal towns like Gwa and Thandwe since last June and has recently been conducting aerial bombing and shelling of Kyaukphyu, Rathedaung, and Ponnagyun townships.
It seems that the military council wants to conduct elections not only in Kyaukphyu, Sittwe, and Manaung townships, where it still has control, but also in other townships like Taungup, Thandwe, Ann, and Gwa, which are under the control of the Arakan Army. Political analysts claim that the assault may be a part of that goal.
