Buddhist mobs have joined forces to attack the last remaining mosque in Kyaukpyu town on Ramree Island. The worshipping house of the mosque was badly damaged and the minaret was destroyed.

An activist said he heard about the people trying to destroy the mosque and went to investigate. He confirmed on November 19, the morning after the reported attack, that the damage had been done as it had been reported.

The attack began on Monday evening as a group of Buddhists gathered in celebration of the full moon festival. Some from the group attacked the mosque and destroyed the minaret at about 8 pm local time, expressing concerns about a visit from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). A visit of a delegation from the organisation lasted four days and ended the previous Saturday.

Less than three hours after the attack began, about 75 percent of the mosque was destroyed.

According to reports, Buddhist Arakanese locals had planned to mount a protest related to the organisation’s visit to oppose its desire to have an office in the town. The mosque incident was apparently part of that protest, according to sources.

Prior to the organisation’s visit, hundreds of Buddhists protested in the streets the previous Tuesday against the organisation that some of the protesters call biased. That Friday, as many as 5,000 Buddhists demonstrated against the organisation in the Arakan capital Sittwe.

The organisation’s delegation to Burma included members from Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

During the delegation’s visit, the organisation’s secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was moved to tears and said he had “never had such a feeling”. Ihsanoglu got guarantees from the Burmese government to resolve citizenship dilemmas involving more than 800,000 Rohingya Muslims.

The OIC tried to open an office in Burma in October 2012, but President Thein Sein blocked the move at that time following a huge protest effort by Buddhist Monks.

Although the recent attack destroyed the last safe mosque in the Arakan state, officials said they were able to limit the damage the Buddhists attacks caused. They said a mob headed toward the mosque was dispersed, and they said that they didn’t know the mob’s members were at the Tasaungdai festival.

Officials said they are making a list of people who may know the attackers.

A spokesman for the Arakan government also downplayed what happened, saying that the attackers were only about 10 in number and were drunk. They threw rocks at a disused mosque, according to the government spokesman.

But Rohingya Blogger reported that police made no effort to interfere with the mobs who were intent on destroying the mosque.

After the incident, however, the police presence around the mosque was intensified.

In recent months, Muslims in Burma have faced a number of attacks by Buddhists. Since June, Muslims by the hundreds of thousands have been forced to leave their homes in the western part of the nation because of attacks from Buddhists.

These attacks on Muslims spread to take in the central part of the nation in early 2013, leaving scores of people injured and dead.

Estimates by the United Nations indicate that almost 29,000 people have been displaced — and that 97 percent or more of them are Rohingya Muslims.

Many of those who have been displaced recently now live in camps. There were also 75,000 people — mostly Rohingya — who were displaced in June 2012. At that time, there was a serious outbreak of sectarian violence as well.