A Buddhist monastery and a Catholic church were both set on fire when regime forces raided two villages in Sagaing Region’s Taze Township earlier this month, according to local sources.
The attacks, which took place on March 12, targetted the villages of Sein Sar and Chaung Yoe, both located on the road connecting the towns of Taze and Ye-U.
A number of civilians were also killed in the raids, the sources said.
The assaults began when a column of junta soldiers and members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia entered Sein Sar at around 11am on March 12 and proceeded to raid the monastery and interrogate its 70-year-old abbot, Ven. Pyinnya Zawta.
“They made him kneel down with his hands behind his head. Then they forcibly disrobed him and told him that they could kill him now because he was no longer a monk,” a villager who spoke to the abbot about the incident told Myanmar Now.
According to the villager, a 14-year-old schoolgirl was shot dead while trying to flee the attack. A paraplegic woman in her eighties was later rescued after being trapped inside her home, he added.
Soldiers also looted the monastery, taking several appliances and a car, before setting fire to its community and dining halls. At least 20 Buddha images, including one that was more than 160 years old, were destroyed by the fire, according to the villager.
A total of 18 buildings were destroyed in the village, he added.
The column then moved south to the predominantly Christian village of Chaung Yoe, where they interrogated three nuns, all in their seventies, at the Mary Help of Christians Church.
A local resident who lives near the church said that the soldiers then set fire to its pulpit and altar, as well as robes and other sacred items.
A 55-year-old man and his son were also shot and killed during the raid, according to the Chaung Yoe resident, who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity.
The attacks on Sein Sar and Chaung Yoe reportedly came after regime forces stationed in the nearby village of Ponnaka were hit by explosives earlier in the day.
The troops first took control of the village and its two rice mills on February 15, local sources reported.
According to the Chin Human Rights Organisation, regime forces destroyed 34 churches and 15 other Christian religious buildings between February 2021 and January 2022.
The junta routinely denies responsibility for the destruction of places of worship, which are often used as shelters by civilians displaced by violence.
Last May, a day after an artillery shell killed four people and injured eight at a church in Kayah (Karenni) State, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, the archbishop of Yangon, released a statement calling on the military to refrain from targeting churches.
Despite not receiving any assurance that such attacks would not happen again, the cardinal controversially met with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing last December for a Christmas celebration.
On Christmas Eve, the day after the meeting, regime troops massacred dozens of civilians, including children and aid workers, in Kayah State’s Hpruso Township.
The incident was one of the most notorious atrocity attacks carried out by the military since it seized power last February.
