A night of terror in Yangon

On Sunday night, the junta’s soldiers terrorised the residents of Yangon, firing shots in streets across the city and raiding homes to make arbitrary arrests. 

The sound of gunfire was reported in Kyimyindaing, South Okkalapa, Shwepyitha and North Okkalapa townships. 

In North Okkalapa, where at least nine unarmed protesters were murdered by the regime last Wednesday, an electricity blackout was imposed and security forces fired guns while patrolling the streets in military trucks. At least one civilian was wounded. 

A widely viewed video clip showed soldiers and police patrolling neighborhoods of this suburban township and shouting abuse at its residents, who have launched daily protests against the regime despite the lethal crackdowns. 

In Hlaing Township, security forces raided the house of Peter, whose son Sithu Maung has been a leading voice in the current uprising against the military coup. 

Peter, a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, was arrested. 

Sithu Maung is one of only two Muslim politicians elected to represent the NLD in the November general election, the results of which have been annulled by the junta. 

He had been in hiding for two weeks at the time of reporting. 

“My father was beaten up while he was being taken away. The soldiers and police destroyed our father’s house,” he wrote on his Facebook. 

A police source told Myanmar Now that beginning on the night of March 6, the regime had planned to round up rank-and-file members of the NLD. The party’s top leadership, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, have been detained since the February 1 coup. 

In an apparent part of this scheme, security forces detained 58-year-old Khin Maung Latt, a ward chair for the NLD in Yangon’s Pabedan Township. He was taken from his family home during a Saturday night raid. By Sunday morning, his family had been told that he had died and that they needed to retrieve his body from a military hospital. 

Khin Maung Latt was in good health at the time of his arrest and is believed to have been tortured and killed during the night he spent in the custody of security forces. He was buried in a Yangon cemetery on Sunday evening. 

According to lawyer Maung Maung, who is close to the family of the late NLD ward chair, Khin Maung Latt’s cause of death remains unknown even though an autopsy was carried out at the hospital.  

In a new development since the coup, military troops have, since Sunday, started to occupy hospitals, pagoda compounds and universities in Yangon and major cities. It is seen as an effort by the military to further tighten its control over the public, who remain defiant despite lethal crackdowns which have already killed more than 50, injured hundreds, and led to the arrest of around 2,000 people.