RANGOON, Burma – Six Buddhists will face trial for murder this month over the lynching of ten Muslim bus passengers that sparked sectarian unrest in western Burma last year, officials said Thursday (August 15th) according to AFP.

More than 200 people died in violence between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine in the days after the June 3rd, 2012 bus attack in which passengers were dragged from the vehicle and killed by a mob.

The apparent trigger for the attack was the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman a few days earlier in Thandwe district, allegedly by Muslims.

The incidents sparked deadly clashes between the two communities that displaced up to 140,000 people – mostly Rohingya – as villages were razed.

Court hearings will begin August 26th.

The alleged perpetrators were arrested last month and appeared in a local court Tuesday to hear the charges.