Medan: A group of Myanmar people beat eight Buddhists to death at an Indonesian detention centre Friday after becoming enraged at news of deadly communal violence in their homeland, officials said.
The Rohingyas launched the attack at the immigration centre on Sumatra island using weapons fashioned from smashed up beds and broom handles after seeing pictures of religious violence in Myanmar last month that left dozens dead.
The attack underscores the soaring Muslim-Buddhist tensions that have cast a shadow over political reforms in Myanmar, where the end of decades of authoritarian military rule has laid bare deep sectarian fault lines.
Immigration centre official Rida Agustian said the entrance to the block where the detainees were being held was sealed off to stop officers from intervening as the deadly attack was launched in the early hours.
When officers finally got in, they found “blood spattered on the walls and in pools on the floor,” he said.
“The men had used wood from their beds and broom sticks as weapons to kill.
“The bodies were covered in blood, it looked like they were beaten and tortured to death.”
Agustian said 15 people, believed to Rohingya, were injured during the violence at the centre, where 106 of them are being held.
Kyawkyaw, 25, who gave only one name and is one of a handful of Myanmar Buddhists being held at the centre, said he heard the attack unfolding and was “very scared”.
