Junta troops burnt down homes in two villages and killed five men in Sagaing Region’s Katha Township last week, according to a representative of the local administration under the National Unity Government.
A 100-soldier military column arrived in Inn Da Yant village on the eastern banks of the Ayeyarwady River on July 28, and an intense battle broke out that afternoon between the troops and joint forces belonging to Battalion 12 of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the People’s Defence Force.
The Myanmar army unit then set fire to Inn Da Yant, burning down some 30 homes, as well as 10 in neighbouring Ywar Tharyar. The next day they continued onward to Kyauk Htone Gyi, seven miles north, an official from the Katha Township People’s Administration Team said.
Residents who fled the attack discovered the bodies of five slain villagers after the soldiers left Inn Da Yant and they returned to the village.
“[The junta troops] killed and buried them,” the local administrative official said. “Of the five bodies, three of them were buried in the same place. The other two bodies were not even buried, they were just covered with leaves.”
Three of the bodies showed signs of having endured severe beatings and torture, while the other two had been fatally shot, he added.
The victims were identified as civilians, without any affiliation to local armed resistance groups, and were aged from 20 to 45.
The troops in question were part of Infantry Battalion 121 under Light Infantry Division 88, based in Ngaroe town in northern Shan State’s Mabein Township, some 13 miles east of Katha.
They had previously looted homes in Inn Da Yant in early July, stealing livestock as well as rice, oil and salt supplies.
“They loaded all the food from the village onto their cars and then went back to their unit in Ngaroe. When they came for a second time [weeks later], they burned the houses and killed some villagers,” the Katha Township administration official said.
At the time of reporting, the column was still believed to be occupying Kyauk Htone Gyi, the residents of which had fled. Those who were unable to leave were captured by the soldiers, and have since been held in the village’s monastery, according to a local man with ties to the area resistance movement.
“The villagers have been forced to gather in the monastery for four nights,” he said on Wednesday. “The junta troops took all the people’s phones, even the phone of the monastery abbot was also confiscated.”
He speculated that the detained civilians were likely being interrogated and tortured, but noted that it was difficult to obtain updated information with phone communications cut off.
Sagaing Region remains a resistance stronghold, and in townships like Katha on the border with Kachin State, the KIA—a well established ethnic armed organisation—has been aiding local guerrilla groups in their fight against the junta.
