Myanmar military detains 40 civilians, torches houses in Sagaing Region

A junta column burned down 32 houses and took 40 villagers captive in and near the village of Min Kun, Sagaing Township in the region of the same name on Tuesday morning, locals said. According to a local villager in his 30s, the arson attack was meant as retribution for a recent attack by anti-junta forces on a patrol vehicle carrying police officers and junta-trained Pyu Saw Htee militia members, three of whom were killed. “Three junta personnel died and two of them were officers. They were shot dead while on patrol. That is why they are destroying the villages now,” the villager said. No armed groups have claimed responsibility for the attack, and Myanmar Now was unable to reach the military council for comment on the arson attacks or arrests. The soldiers selected people from the street in Min Kun and took them captive arbitrarily, the villager said. “They even took shopkeepers around the Min Kun Pagoda, saying they needed to question them. Around 40 locals were taken into custody, and we heard that they were being interrogated at the police station. None of them have been released yet,” he added. Min Kun is located some 10 miles north of the town of Sagaing on the west bank of the Ayeyarwady River, which separates it from Mandalay. Four houses in Min Kun and 28 in the neighbouring village of Shar Yaung were destroyed in the fires set by the junta soldiers, another local man said. The remains of a house torched by junta forces in Sagaing Region (Wetlet Informational Network) “The houses they torched were the ones around the Mya Thein Tan Pagoda and on the roads leading to the Dhammanada Monastery. It is especially hard for the villagers of Shar Yaung because they’ve been having problems from the floods,” said the man, who used to live in Min Kun. Violence has become a common occurrence in Sagaing Region since the 2021 coup, and has escalated in Sagaing Township in recent weeks. A large junta force also detained 14 villagers on Sunday in Lel Gyi village, Sagaing Township, allegedly shooting one of them dead and leaving the body on the road, the local man said. No detailed information is available about the captives or the slain civilian. An alliance of anti-junta resistance forces initiated a joint attack on the Min Kun area police station in the evening of July 6, killing a police officer and one member of a junta-trained, Pyu Saw Htee militia.

Myanmar military detains 40 civilians, torches houses in Sagaing Region

According to locals, the arson attack on the village of Min Kun, Sagaing Township was likely in retaliation for resistance forces’ killing of three junta personnel recently found patrolling the area

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