A group of monks from Patriotic Myanmar Monk Union (Yangon) raided a butcher house in Ma U Bin Township in Ayeyarwady Region on 19 December. The raid on the butcher house in Pyone Cho Lay road in 11 ward was made around midnight, and the incident was reported on the social media with an aim to incite religious tension. The headline of the post said “Urgent news on Muslim Kulars (a derogatory word used in Myanmar to refer Muslims and the people of South Asian origin). The license for butcher house for the current 2016/17 fiscal year was granted with the name of a Buddhist man, U Tin Maung, and Muslims are operating it. The monk who raided the butcher house accused that more animals were slaughtered than permitted numbers. They asked the police and municipal authorities to join in the raid. According to an eyewitness, a truck carrying animals to butcher house during the raid was sent to the police station and the monk asked the police to open a case against the owner of the animals, an eyewitness said. A local resident who is also a senior member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party said, “This sort of things should not happen and should not be done, the raid which is deliberately done (against Muslim) could trigger conflict”. At the pressure of the monk, the municipal authorities confiscated the meat at the butcher house and auctioned at Kyat 2500 per viss (1.65 kilo). According to a resident of the ward, the daily quota for slaughter is two animal, but as one more animal was slaughtered, the meat from the additional animal was auctioned. A Facebook page of Ashin Thusi Ta (Patriotic League) posted a news on the incident with the title “Urgent news on Muslim Kulars”. In the post, the monk said “even though we would like to do our monk work but we are forced to get involved as cattle are slaughtered unlawfully in mass numbers in Myanmar. No matter how they are being slaughtered people of Myanmar dislike killing of the animals, Muslim kulars should know that fact”. A Muslim who read the post said it was aimed to incite conflict between the two communities. Reference: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=242330529514209&id=100012117914573