The ultra-extremist formed a committee to monitor on issuance of citizenship identification cards to Muslims in Thandwe Township in Rakhine State. They gathered at a monastery in Thandwe on 24 December and formed the committee which is led by six monks who serve as patrons and it also includes eight laymen as members. A man who serve as the secretary of the committee wrote in a post on his Facebook page that according to a report issued by the Investigation Committee on the Rakhine Conflict in 2013 there are 10000 Muslims live in Thandwe out of which only 474 are Kaman. He said the committee would protest if more than that numbers of citizenship identification cards were issued. The committee has informed to the Township General Administration Department on its formation. The committee’s formation comes following a decision by the District Immigration Department relax rules for Muslims in application for citizenship. Under the previous rules the applications for citizenship has to be submitted up to the Central Level Citizenship Scrutiny Board and the ID was issued by the State level Immigration Office. The new rule grant authorities at the district level immigration officer to issue citizenship IDs. Ma Sandar who went to Thandwe district Immigration office to issue her citizenship ID said the member of the monitoring committee were circling around the immigration office. Majority of the members of the monitoring committee were those who were involved in inciting religious violence in Thandwe in 2012 and they were under the scanner of a local group formed at that time to dispel misinformation. The group included members of the National League for Democracy (NLD). Source of BHRN