A group of 17 Rohingya youths from Buthitaung Township in Rakhine State were arrested on terrorism charges. They were arrested on allegation of joining terrorism training. The group, which include a religious teacher, a former head of village administration and a landlord. The rest are causal labourers. They were arrested on 7 March from Tin May village, where they were attending a martial arts training. A spokesperson for border security force told Irrawaddy news agency those who joined the training were paid Kyat 3000 per day and the training include on use of small firearms and weapons will be supplied to them from Bangladesh after the training. However, an eyewitness said the trainings were purely martial arts, and they were organised in Muslim villages and the training did not include small weapon training. Among those arrested include a 15-year-old minor and they are held at Buthitaung prison. They are charged under the section 17 and sub sections 1 and 2 of the Unlawful Association Act. They were produced in the court on 27 March. Even though similar martial arts training were conducted in other places, the authorities have not take any actions. Since January 2016, at least martial arts trainings were conducted across Myanmar under sponsorship of a nationalist group, the Nationalist Brotherhood. Also, a mainstream political party the Union Solidary and Development Party (USDP) has conducted two martial arts trainings since last year. Reference: Irrawaddy News