Myanmar government forces found the bodies of 28 Hindu villagers on Sunday, who authorities suspect were killed by Muslim insurgents last month, at the beginning of a violent clashes that sent 430,000 Muslim Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army group denied killing the Hindus saying it did not attack civilians.
The latest violence in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state began on 25 August when ARSA militants attacked about 30 police posts and an army camp, killing about 12 people.
The United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing a sweeping government offensive in the north of Rakhine state in response to those attacks.
The government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar has said more than 400 people have been killed, most of them insurgents. It rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing, saying it is fighting terrorists.
Members of the small Hindu minority appear to have been caught in the middle. Some have fled to Bangladesh, complaining of violence against them by soldiers or Buddhist vigilantes. Others have complained of being attacked by the insurgents on suspicion of being government spies.
The government said a search was mounted near Ye Baw Kya village in the north of Rakhine state after a refugee in Bangladesh contacted a Hindu community leader in Myanmar. The refugee said about 300 ARSA militants had marched about 100 people out of the village on 25 Aug and killed them.
Twenty of the dead were female and eight were boys , the government said.
“They forced eight female villagers to convert to the Islamic religion and took them to Bangladesh,” the government said.
A government spokesman, Zaw Htay, said the security forces were investigating.
Access to the area by journalists as well as human rights workers and aid workers is largely restricted and Reuters could not independently verify the report.
An ARSA spokesman said he believed Buddhist nationalists were trying to divide Hindus and Muslims were behind the “lies” that ARSA militants had killed the villagers.
“ARSA has internationally pledged not to target civilians and that remains unchanged no matter what,” the spokesman, who is based in a neighbouring country and identified himself only as Abdullah, told Reuters.
The violence in Rakhine State and the exodus of refugees is the biggest crisis the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced since it came to power last year as part of a transition away from nearly 50 years of harsh military rule.
Bangladesh and aid organisations are struggling to help the Rohingya refugees there, while aid agencies fear a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the north of Rakhine State, where rights groups say nearly half of all Muslim villages have been torched.