Junta troops slay captured resistance fighters in advance toward Indo-Myanmar border town

A military column killed four resistance fighters in their custody on Tuesday as they advanced toward the Sagaing Region town of Khampat, which is held by resistance forces and located less than five miles from Myanmar’s border with India. Around 200 junta troops, divided into three columns, have launched offensives against Khampat since early November, when the People’s Defence Force (PDF) and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) seized control of the town after days of fighting. One of these columns, from the city of Kalay, also in Sagaing, detained and tortured seven members of an armed resistance who they ambushed while they were guarding Khampat on Tuesday night. Four were later killed and two escaped with severe injuries; the remaining man was held and forced to act as a guide for the soldiers, according to the Chin National Organisation/Chin National Defense Force - Upper Chindwin Region (CNO/CNDF UCR), which is active in the region. The casualties included two members of the Chinland Defence Force - Tonzang, one from the Rawn Chin group, and another from the local People’s Defence Team (PDT). The two wounded escapees were CNDF and PDT fighters, who had been stabbed and left for dead. “The junta troops arrested all seven resistance fighters. Six of them had their necks cut using knives,” CNO/CNDF UCR spokesperson Salai Lian Pi told Myanmar Now. “The junta soldiers also stabbed them in their heads and abdomens. The two who managed to escape fell unconscious due to the injuries they sustained, but when they regained consciousness after the soldiers’ departure, they fled.” Photographs seen by Myanmar Now show that the bodies of the deceased resistance fighters had their necks slashed and had suffered lacerations to their hands and chests. One of the men appeared to have been scalped. The blurred bodies of the resistance fighters who were tortured and killed by junta troops outside of Khampat (Supplied) Junta spokesperson Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun said that the military was carrying out “successful” operations near Khampat, regime-controlled media reported on Friday. Salai Lian Pi of the CNO/CNDF UCR said that while Myanmar army troops were spotted around Khampat, there had been no renewed ground battles for the town. “When the military council uses the term ‘success,’ it might imply killing our comrades and arson attacks on the village of Htan Ta Pin,” he said, referring to the 250-household community raided on Sunday and Monday south of the nearby town of Tamu, in the same district as Khampat. Some 80 percent of its homes were believed to have been burnt down. “The area is close to Khampat, but the army has not entered Khampat town. If they enter the town, the battles will be massive,” Salai Lian Pi predicted. Since Wednesday, thousands of Khampat residents have fled to nearby villages fearing attacks by the approaching junta columns. As for those who left Htan Ta Pin, they “fled with only the clothes on their backs,” according to a member of the anti-junta Tamu District Public Administration Team. “They had to flee towards the Indian border. Now it's raining. They have only makeshift rain tents for shelter, and are not secure,” he explained. The military is focussed on reestablishing control over the road connecting Tamu with Kalay, which is crucial for trade with India, across the nearby border. Chin resistance forces have also recently captured the Indo-Myanmar border town of Rihkhawdar in Chin State, halting trade with the neighbouring nation.

Junta troops slay captured resistance fighters in advance toward Indo-Myanmar border town

A military column approaching the town of Khampat, currently held by the resistance, torture and kill several guerrilla fighters intercepted on security duty

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