Members of the junta’s armed forces raided and set fire to a base belonging to the People’s Defence Force (PDF) in Monywa, Sagaing Region on Tuesday morning, a member of the resistance group said.
Some 30 soldiers in 10 military vehicles and a bulldozer ambushed the base of the Monywa PDF’s Squadron 205 near Palin village at around 5am, forcing members to flee, a member calling himself “Rocker Tin Sein” told Myanmar Now.
“We narrowly escaped arrest. We lost all our ammunition as well as our explosives as we didn’t have the time to take them,” he said. “We didn’t even get to take our clothes. They took all of our motorbikes, too. We lost everything we had saved up.”
The base was also the site of a workshop where the PDF had made explosive devices; during the raid, the junta troops set fire to two such buildings where weapons had been stockpiled, Rocker Tin Sein said.
As the soldiers entered the area, they reportedly fired shots into Palin village for around 20 minutes, forcing residents to flee, and wounding a 37-year-old local man in the arm.
At least three civilian men were arrested from Palin as well, a villager told Myanmar Now. At the time of reporting, the troops were still occupying the village and the total number of detainees was not known.
A Monywa PDF officer confirmed that the raid took place, but said no members of his group were arrested and that they would continue their revolt against military rule.
“All of our comrades are revolting against the dictatorship, as we cannot just let them kill civilians like they have been doing. We will fight against them with whatever weapons we can find,” he said.
The military council has intensified attacks on Sagaing Region—including through the use of airstrikes—in an effort to crush the armed resistance movement and public support for it.
