#Rohingya from middle hamlet of #KyiGanPyin forced to leave their houses by #AungSanSuuKyi's govt's order. pic.twitter.com/nszPk6dHHD — Ro Nay San Lwin (@nslwin) October 23, 2016

On October 9, 2016, dozens of armed men attacked three police outposts in Maungdaw township in Rakhine, a volatile state on the western side of Burma that borders Bangladesh. Nine police officers were killed and the attackers managed to seize a number of weapons. The Burmese President’s Office blamed a previously unknown Rohingya group called Aqa Lul Mujahidin . This new group is reported to have links to the Organization for Rohingya Security, an armed group which was active in the 1990’s but has faded from view in the past few years. Other officials, however, have said that the government is still uncertain about the identity of the armed men.In the wake of the attacks, security forces locked down the historically volatile state and launched a sweep to find the perpetrators. The security forces have denied both journalists and humanitarian groups access to what they are calling an “operation zone”.Rohingya activists, however, accuse the security forces of targeting their community and committing rampant abuses, including burning and looting of villages, rape and summary executions.Though lack of access prevents an accurate account, an estimated 18,000 people are thought to have been displaced by the security operation, according to Human Rights Watch . An estimated 15,000 are Rohingya. Several amateur videos posted online showed their flight.A long history of persecution in Buddhist-majority Burma has left this Muslim minority community vulnerable. Technically, the Rohingya remain stateless due to a 1982 law denying them Burmese citizenship. Hundreds were killed and thousands left homeless in Rakhine state during ethnic and religious violence between Rohingya and the Rakhine Buddhist majority in 2012. Others fled the country