Junta forces in Magway Region set fire to a police station some 16 miles west of Myaing town on Monday, a member of the local People’s Defence Force (PDF) resistance chapter said.
Up to seven buildings inside the Ba Hin village police compound were destroyed, along with at least five civilian homes located to the west of the station.
“Many of the buildings were reduced to ashes. Only the building where the police chief lives is left,” the PDF member told Myanmar Now, adding that more local homes in the area were also being burned as of 3pm on Monday.
He said that the military was likely planning to abandon the site, and set fire to it so that it would not be occupied by resistance forces.
Junta personnel proceeded to arrest some 50 residents of Htanaung Kone, a village just north of Ba Hin.
While the soldiers were still occupying Ba Hin at the time of reporting, the PDF member speculated that the troops detained the Htanaung Kone villagers to serve as porters in order to transport the property emptied from the police compound once the troops left.
The exact number of people held hostage was not known, and the arrests were described as being carried out at “random.”
Junta forces set fire to another one of their bases in Magway’s Pauk Township in late September before abandoning it. They also reportedly torched at least homes in Thayet Kan, the village where the post was located.
Over the last week, in neighbouring Sagaing Region, the military also burned down around 1,000 homes in five villages, displacing 6,200 people, according to local sources.
The military does not comment on its operations in Sagaing and Magway, or its use of arson against the public.
