When members of the military council were unable to find a student union member in Yangon’s Hlegu Township on Tuesday, they arrested his 50-year-old father instead, according to local sources.
The junta’s armed forces detained at least 10 people that night, after three people accused of being military informants were shot and injured in the preceding days.
Among those arrested was a monk from the Ingyin Myaing monastery and a patron from Hlegu’s National League for Democracy (NLD) chapter.
At the time of reporting, it was not known where those arrested were being detained; their families were reportedly unable to make contact with them.
“[The troops] came looking for them in plainclothes just the other day but they couldn’t find them, so they came back with a dozen military vehicles this morning and took them. We still don’t know why they were arrested, though,” a local resident whose friend was detained told Myanmar Now on Tuesday.
Further arrests were reportedly made on Wednesday, with the military tightening security that morning.
“They’re patrolling the town out of uniform. We saw some security forces on the Hlegu bridge and there are even plainclothes security forces in the tea shops,” another Hlegu local said.
Shootings of those perceived to be military informers, collaborators with the coup council, or members of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) have been targeted for attack by unidentified perpetrators across the country.
Locals in Hlegu told Myanmar Now they believed the arrests on Tuesday may have been an act of retribution by the junta for three such attempted murders in the township from Saturday through Monday.
On Monday night, the chair of the Yeiktha ward USDP chapter was shot. One day earlier an office assistant from the Hlegu Township traffic police station was shot in front of the USDP office, and on July 3, Aung Htay Hlaing—a 100-household administrator in Yeiktha ward—was also shot.
All three victims survived but were injured.
The Hlegu Township People’s Defence Force released a statement claiming responsibility for the shooting of the local administrator.
The military council has not made a statement on the shootings or arrests in Hlegu.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has reported that there have been at least 5,094 people detained since the coup.
