(CNN) -- The expulsion of an international medical NGO providing a vital lifeline to displaced Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state has raised fears other aid agencies could be next. Advocates for the Rohingya Muslim minority -- tens of thousands of whom have been displaced by sectarian violence and are forced to live in sealed camps -- fear the move is part of a push by extremist Rakhine nationalists to cut off a lifeline to the persecuted ethnic group and help drive them from the state in western Myanmar. "It is absolutely shocking, especially that the government seems to bow to the demands of protesters in the face of international human rights concerns," said Chris Lewa, founder of the Arakan Project, an NGO which advocates on the Rohingya issue.
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There are fears NGOs could be expelled from Myanmar's volatile Rakhine state
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Medecins Sans Frontieres was banned following protests by extremist Rakhine nationalists
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The government backs their allegations that the NGO favors Rohingya Muslims
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Advocates for the persecuted Rohingya fear the move is part of a push to drive them out
The @placeholder are a stateless Muslim minority in Rakhine state, thought to number between 800,000 and one million.