A civilian was shot dead in Myingyan as the regime’s armed forces destroyed anti-coup protest bases in the Mandalay Region town on Monday.
The troops began attacking anti-coup strongholds in the town’s third, fourth and sixth wards at 6am, according to Myingyan locals.
The victim was shot in the thigh at around 10am on Monday, and he was carried away by soldiers, a local told Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity.
“He fell down after being shot near the Chindwin Teashop. We couldn’t retrieve his body and had to watch [him being taken away], just like that,” the eyewitness said.
He added that locals do not know when the wounded man passed away, but regime authorities informed his family later that evening that they could pick up his body on Tuesday morning.
Myanmar Now was still trying to get in touch with the victim’s family members at the time of reporting to confirm further details about the deceased man.
According to the Myingyan Public Movement Committee, he was a resident of Ward 11.
Myingan’s Lanmadaw protest base in the town’s sixth ward was a primary defence area from which civilians had been using homemade guns, such as hunting rifles, to resist attacks by regime troops.
It was destroyed by the armed forces on Sunday evening, then rebuilt by residents early Monday morning, before troops again demolished the base at 6am.
While soldiers were dismantling the Lanmadaw protest base, residents from Wards 3 and 4 initiated protests in an attempt to distract the regime’s forces; they too were met with attacks.
Soldiers and police then proceeded to crush protest bases in those wards as well.
Troops wrecked four motorbikes, as well as a vehicle belonging to a local rescue organisation, and destroyed the home of a well known pro-democracy protester during the attacks, locals said.
“They smashed the doors and took away things from that house,” a Myingyan local told Myanmar Now.
During the two consecutive days of brutal crackdowns in the town, at least three civilians were wounded and six, including a 13-year-old child, were arrested.
At least 24 civilians have been killed in Myingyan since Myanmar’s February 1 military coup, according to local relief groups.
There have reportedly been casualties on the regime’s side as well, but Myanmar Now has been unable to verify the number of deaths.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a group that has been monitoring the regime’s violence, at least 738 people have been killed nationwide in the junta’s crackdowns as of April 20.