Maungdaw, Arakan State: A young Rohingya man died on November 27 after falling from a tree while he was cutting wood for officers from Burma’s border security force, Nasaka, said a relative of the victim.

The young man was identified only as Dolla, 20, son of Baila, from Man Gala Kyi village in Maungdaw Township.

Dolla and a group of other residents from his village went to the forest to gather wood for Nasaka headquarters in Kawar Bill to fuel brick-baking kiln. The border security force paid 300 kyats for each log that measured six feet in length and 12 inches in circumference, said a local villager.

The young man fell from a tree in which he was cutting branches and injured his side. Other villagers rushed him to his village for treatment, but he died within a half hour of the fall, a log cutter working with the victim said.

Nasaka headquarters was later informed of the accident and arrested the seven villagers who had carried the victim home, though the villagers were later released after providing one adult chicken each to the camp.

“The arrestees are poor villagers. They have committed no crime. They only carried the dying young man to get help. But they are arrested and have to give up a chicken, which is worth at least 5,000 kyats,” said a local schoolteacher.

The body of the young man was sent to Maungdaw hospital for a postmortem examination, after which his relatives were ordered to bury it in the village cemetery on November 28.