1978: Operation Naga Min
Framed as an immigration crackdown, Naga Min ("King Dragon") sent troops sweeping through northern Arakan villages in early 1978. Refugees who reached Bangladesh described arbitrary arrests, beatings, rape, and looting. Within months around 200,000 Rohingya had crossed the border. Under international pressure and a bilateral agreement, most eventually returned — but the operation marked the first modern mass expulsion of Rohingya from Myanmar.
1991–92: Operation Pyi Thaya
Just over a decade later, the Tatmadaw (Burmese military) launched Operation Pyi Thaya ("Clean and Beautiful Nation") in northern Rakhine State. Confiscation of land for army bases and "model villages," forced labour, restrictions on religious practice, and widespread violence drove an estimated 250,000 Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh.
A pattern emerges
Both operations followed a recognisable rhythm: an official justification (immigration, security), a sudden flood of refugees, international outcry, and eventually a repatriation framework that returned people to a situation little better than the one they had fled. Each cycle made the next more likely — and prepared the ground for the far larger violence to come in 2012 and 2017.