Nora Pyae

Myanmar army terrorises villages south of Bagan

A man was killed and two people were injured in junta raids that began on Tuesday in Mandalay Region’s Nyaung-U Township, south of the ancient city and UNESCO World Heritage site of Bagan.  The raids, including arson attacks and the capture of a dozen civilian hostages by junta forces, took place over two days in at least five villages. Three columns of junta infantry troops conducted the raids, according to local resistance fighters.  “A man in his 40s with mental illness was tortured and shot dead after being detained by junta troops. We found his body in a field near a school in Zee Zar Hmyin village,” said a representative of the People’s Democratic Army, an anti-junta group operating in Naung U Township. On Tuesday, around 120 junta troops advanced from a base in Taung Zin village, splitting into two columns and moving west into the villages of Chaung Shey, Ah Nauk Ohn, Pwe Taing and Zee Zar Hmyin.  Taung Zin, the village the troops advanced from, is 10 miles south of the junta-controlled town of Nyaung-U and is the site of a junta police station. A third column of junta troops, based in Gant Gar village south of Bagan,…