ARSA Extremists Massacre 99 Hindus

On This Day in Arakan History ၊ August 25, 2017

August 25, 2017, marks the day when Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) extremists massacred at least 99 Hindu women, men, and children in northern Rakhine State, in one of the most brutal atrocities committed by non-state actors during the 2017 crisis. Around 8:00 AM, armed men dressed in black, accompanied by local Muslim villagers in plain clothes, attacked the Hindu community in Ah Nauk Kha Maung Seik village in Maungdaw Township.

They rounded up dozens of Hindus, robbed them, bound and blindfolded them, and marched them to the village outskirts where they executed 53 people—20 men, 10 women, and 23 children, 14 of whom were under eight years old—starting with the men . Eight Hindu women and eight children were spared only after being forced to convert to Islam and were taken to Bangladesh.

The ruined villages of Kha Maung Seik and Ye Baw Kya, where over 100 villagers were massacred by the ARSA during the August 2017 violence (source@googleearth)

The same day, all 46 Hindus in neighboring Ye Bauk Kyar village disappeared, presumed killed by the same ARSA terrorists. This massacre represented the targeting of a minority community caught between the armed conflict of ARSA and the Myanmar military.

The August 25 massacre was historically significant because it revealed that the violence in Rakhine State was not simply a one-sided military campaign against Muslims, but a complex conflict in which ARSA itself committed atrocities against other ethnic and religious minorities.

The killings came on the same day ARSA launched coordinated attacks on over 30 police posts, triggering the massive military clearance operations that would drive over several thousands of local Muslims to flee to Bangladesh . The bodies of 45 victims from Ah Nauk Kha Maung Seik were exhumed from four mass graves in late September 2017, confirming the scale of the atrocity.

A memorial pillar erected for the Hindu people who were killed (source@goldeneramedia)

Survivors like 22-year-old Bina Bala described how ARSA fighters told them: "You and Rakhine are the same, you have a different religion, you can't live here" . Another survivor, Formila, witnessed fighters "holding the heads and hair of the women and others were holding knives. And then they cut their throats" . ARSA denied responsibility, but Amnesty International's detailed investigation confirmed the group's involvement.

The August 25 massacre created lasting consequences for accountability and communal relations in Rakhine State. Amnesty International emphasized that "accountability for these atrocities is every bit as crucial as it is for the crimes against humanity carried out by Myanmar's security forces," insisting that abuses by one side never justify abuses by the other. The massacre highlighted the need for independent investigations into all human rights violations, with full access to northern Rakhine State.

For the Hindu community in Myanmar, already a small minority, the killings deepened trauma and displacement. The eight abducted women and children were repatriated from Bangladesh in October 2017 with support from both governments, but the broader Hindu community continues to seek justice. The massacre also complicated international narratives about the crisis in northern Arakan, demonstrating that ARSA was not simply a defensive force but had committed its own atrocities.

Hindu community leader Ni Maul later lamented: "People have less interest in these killings" compared to the reporting on atrocities against Muslims. The August 25, 2017 massacre thus stands as a grim reminder that in Rakhine State's complex conflicts, multiple communities have suffered, and all victims deserve justice.