Five killed in airstrike on NUG courthouse in Sagaing Region

A courthouse operated by the publicly mandated, shadow National Unity Government (NUG) in Pale Township, Sagaing Region was bombed by the junta air force around noon on Tuesday. According to Zaw Htet, an NUG-affiliated court official who is also a member of the people’s administration team for Pale Township, junta aircraft dropped four bombs on the courthouse. “The bombs fell very close to where I was working and I could actually see them hit the ground. I thought I was going to die, but when I heard the first bomb go off, I realised I had survived. They dropped the second bomb just a minute later,” Zaw Htet said. He was 800 metres from the courthouse when the bombs fell. The bombed courthouse was opened by the NUG around eight months ago in Min Taing Pin village, some eight miles west of Pale on the Pale-Gangaw road. The village, which is made up of around 600 homes, is a stronghold of the resistance forces. Five people, including a township-level judge appointed by the NUG, were killed in the bombing and three were severely injured. Victims killed by the military’s airstrike on Min Taing Pin village, shown on December 12 (Pale Township People’s Administration Team) Among the deceased were the township-level judge Paw Pyae Aung, 27; Thae Nu Myint Zaw, 22; Moe Moe, 26, who was a member of the People’s Security Force; as well as a civilian woman and her one-year-old child. “We still haven’t been able to identify the other two victims,” Zaw Htet said, referring to the civilian man and woman. “The bodies were damaged beyond recognition in the attack.” Victims killed by the military’s airstrike on Min Taing Pin village, shown on December 12 (Pale Township People’s Administration Team) Three relatives of Pyu Saw Htee militia members—who were being held at the courthouse after surrendering to the resistance—were severely injured and are undergoing treatment. “There weren’t even any battles to provoke them to resort to airstrikes,” Zaw Htet said. “But there were military informants that we questioned here and then sent to various jailhouses. It’s possible that their connections informed the military about the location.” “This might not have happened if we had just adopted a mobile judiciary system like before,” he added. Paw Pyae Aung, the NUG-appointed judge killed in the airstrike, was a member of the Pale Township police force until he joined the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) in August 2021. He had reportedly been working as an inside source for anti-junta forces even before joining the CDM. A car damaged during the airstrikes in Kyunhla Township (Infinity Group) The military also conducted airstrikes earlier this week in Kyunhla Township, Sagaing Region. A junta plane attacked Leik Sin Taung village close to midnight on December 11, and bombed nearby areas in the western part of the township for nearly 90 minutes at around 8am that day, according to a member of Kyunhla Township People’s Defence Forces (PDF). There was no fighting in the area before the airstrikes and the junta’s motives for conducting the attack are uncertain, but a local man connected to the PDF speculated that it was connected with fighting near the town of Taze, Sagaing Region. “It could be because they were trying to cut off the anti-junta forces’ columns heading towards the Taze battles,” said the local man, referring to the PDF fighters active in the area. The PDF, which operates as the armed wing of the NUG, has recently been fighting to take over Taze after seizing the town of Kawlin, a district-level administrative seat in Sagaing Region, in early November. “Civilians have already started fleeing the villages,” the local man added. Some 30,000 local people from Leik Sin Taung and several nearby villages have been displaced since Monday. In late October, the military bombed an NUG-affiliated civilian administrative office in Hpa Lan Pin village, located in Pale Township some 20 miles west of Min Taing Pin, sending commando ground forces into the area afterwards on a raid. A teenager as well as two other civilians, three resistance fighters, several prisoners detained by the NUG for suspected links with the regime, and one junta soldier were killed in the raid.

Five killed in airstrike on NUG courthouse in Sagaing Region

A local NUG-appointed official affiliated believes people connected with prisoners held at the courthouse had informed the military of its location

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