Arakan Army attacked a police station on Maungdaw highway, Rakhine State, this morning and reported score of police officer casualties. 

Sixty commandos of Arakan Army attacked Done Paik’s police station at 5 AM today for one hour. Local people reported score of police officers were killed and injured. 

AA withdrew after 6 AM, and no more fighting is reported since then.  

Done Paik police station is located near the highway to Maungdaw and about 6 miles away from Thazin Myaing border guard police station that was attacked by AA last month. 

AA fighters previously opened fire the guns to the police men in the village in April when the police were bullying the restaurant owner. The gunfight wounded a police man and a village woman. 

A source close to AA told our news agency the motive of attacking the police station is most of the police officers in the base are transferred from the military and bullying the villagers and ransomed money. 

“The villager U Myint Soe, 50, was arrested and detained for one week at the police station after fighting between AA and the police in the village. His family was forced to pay cash of 3,00,000 Kyat (about 2,000 US dollars) to the police boss. Then, the family had to spend 2,700,000 Kyat (about 1,800 dollar) to serve the police for dinners, whiskey, and other expenses. Besides, all villagers appealed and recommended to the police for his freedom,” said a military analyst—our news agency keeps his name for confident. 

He said, “I think AA is bring the brutal police to justice.”

Our news agency does not have exact number of police officer casualties on this morning attack, but local people reported they saw several ambulances and military trucks went to the police station and boarded dead bodies and injured police men and then drove to the nearby port to transport to the military hospital in Sittway. 

Military tension between AA and Myanmar army has been mounting on the highway and Maungdaw township since May.