Late last month, just as the sun began to rise over a serene plane of ancient pagodas in nearby Mrauk U, the village of Auk Thar Kan fell into chaos.

Twenty-four-year-old Ma Pauk Sa was already awake, smearing thanaka paste across her cheeks as she prepared to open the betelnut shop she helped run at her colleague’s home.

She had recently moved to the village because she thought she would be safe there from the violence that has wracked other parts of northern Rakhine for months.

She was wrong. Out of nowhere, a volley of bullets pierced through the thin walls of the house and riddled Ma Pauk Sa’s body.

She was hit twice in one leg and once in the other, once in her chest and once in the head.

She crumpled to the ground, a pool of blood forming around her body. Miraculously, she survived.

Her colleague, 25-year-old Ma Sabae, took a bullet to her ribs and face and died on the spot.

An elderly man named U Phoe Khaing also died in the shootings and five others were wounded.

They were the latest casualties in more than four months of violence that has raged in Rakhine state between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army (AA).

Both groups have blamed each other for the killings at Auk Thar Kan.

Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, deputy secretary of the Tatmadaw’s True News Information Unit, said AA fighters shot at Tatmadaw troops from near the entrance of the village

When the troops fought back, the AA soldiers ran into the village to take cover and began firing back again, he added, leaving the Tatmadaw troops little choice but to go inside the village and clear the area.  

Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the AA, said the group did not fight with the military near Auk Thar Kan village on 29 March, the day of the incident.

Villagers say the Tatmadaw was responsible for the killings, but Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify that claim.  

Fragments of skull

Ma Pauk Sa was taken to Mrauk U hospital, then transferred to Sittwe hospital.

She was finally sent on a plane on April 4 to Yangon’s North Okkalapa General Hospital, where surgeons removed fragments of skull form her head.

Dr Kyi Soe, head of the hospital, said the operation went well, and that Ma Pauk Sa was lucky because the bullets that struck her legs missed her major arteries.  

Daw Oo Khin Kyaw, Ma Pauk Sa’s mother, said her daughter moved to Auk Thar Kan village because “nothing was going on there. The fighting was only happening in the city.”

The government has not offered any help for her daughter, she added, but the family has received some assistance from a local aid agency.

Villagers arrested

On the day of the incident, the Tatmadaw detained village administrator U Thein Kyaw Naing along with six others. He and one of the villagers were released after interrogation but the remaining five were charged under the unlawful associations act.

The Tatmadaw and the AA have clashed more than 100 times since November, killing dozens, including troops on both sides, police officers and civilians. Around 26,000 have been displaced.

‘Shouting and cursing’

One villager who was present during the March 29 incident told Myanmar Now he did not see the initial round of shooting, but that afterwards he witnessed men in Tatmadaw uniforms who appeared to be from Light Infantry Division No. 55.

“They came inside the village and shouted: ‘motherfucking terrorists! We’re going to shoot your whole village,’” he said.  

After the incident, most of Auk Thar Kan’s 1,000 residents fled to surrounding villages or to camps for internally displaced people.

Almost two weeks later, many villagers said they were still afraid to return home.

Ma Kyi Kyi Htay and her family hid in a makeshift dugout in their yard as the gunshots rang out. After the soldiers left, they fled to a camp in nearby Tha Pyay Kan village.

“We’re scared,” she said. “No one has said they want to go home, not even the children or the elderly.”

Some villagers said the water at their camp was unsanitary and there were too many mosquitoes.

Over 300 people from Auk Thar Kan are taking refuge at Tha Pyay Kan, said U Maung Thein Zan, the Tha Pyay Kan village administrator.

U Htun Thar Sein, an MP for Mrauk U Township, said people in the area are afraid to leave their homes.

“The whole town is like a cemetery,” he said.