
Nine anti-junta administrators and fighters, including a battalion commander sent by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), were shot dead last week by junta forces in Kawlin Township, Sagaing Region.
Zau Seng, the commander of Battalion 1 of the Kawlin District chapter of the People’s Defence Force (PDF), was accompanied by an assistant when they encountered junta scouts on April 26 near Pay Pin Chaung village, some five miles southeast of the town of Kawlin, according to local sources. Both Zau Seng and his assistant were shot dead during a shootout with the scouts.
Zau Seng reportedly came to the district just over a month ago to assume command of a battalion at the behest of the KIA, which provides military training for PDF groups operating in Sagaing Region.
“He was on his way to an area where troops were deployed so that he could provide personal supervision,” a local source who is close to the PDF told Myanmar Now.
“The battalion commander and his assistant went out on a motorcycle believing there would be no junta scouts, but we heard gunshots shortly after they left,” said a local woman who is familiar with the incident.
After the shooting, the military burned the battalion commander’s body but left the assistant’s body without further damage.
The following day, an official of the township’s anti-regime People’s Administration Team and six others were reportedly carrying supplies by car to Thea Kaw village, around four miles west of Kawlin, when they were killed by a group of junta soldiers who intercepted them on the road.
They were traveling in three vehicles and were stopped and shot by the soldiers at around 5am, one mile outside of Thea Kaw, according to a spokesperson for Battalion 2 of the Kanbalu District PDF, an allied PDF group based south of Kawlin.
“They were taking a break, thinking our people were out in front of them and would know if there was any danger. But they ended up running into the junta column in the early morning,” said the spokesperson.
The officer of the People’s Administration Team was identified as a man named Pan. The other victims were five members of the Kawlin Township People’s Defence Team and one member of the People’s Security Force, an interim police force operating under the mechanism of the civilian National Unity Government (NUG).
After the shooting, the soldiers torched a vehicle and burned Pan’s body. The rest of the bodies were left intact at the time, and were cremated later the same evening.
Two junta columns consisting of 60 to 100 soldiers each have reportedly been carrying out frequent raids on villages in southeastern Kawlin Township in recent days, and have clashed with resistance forces allied with the NUG in Kawlin and Kanbalu townships.