SEVEN people were killed in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state yesterday after police opened fire on Buddhist demonstrators, the Star has learned.

The violence occurred after more than 4,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists surrounded a government office in protest against the banning of an annual commemoration of the fall of the ancient Arakan Kingdom.

Mrauk U is the ancient capital of Arakan, and the site where the celebration of the conquest of Arakan — now Rakhine state — by Burmese forces takes place.