As the Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed organisations continues its offensive against junta forces in northern Shan State, the Bamar People’s Liberation Army (BPLA)—chiefly made up of people from Myanmar’s Bamar ethnic majority—has joined them in the fight. The offensive, dubbed Operation 1027, is led by three allied organisations: the Arakan Army (AA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), an ethnic Kokang armed group. Launched on October 27, it has driven junta troops out of hundreds of military bases in just over a month and forced entire battalions to surrender.
Maung Saungkha, a poet and the leader of the BPLA, was among the 17 activists who founded the organisation on April 17, 2021, two months after the military seized power in a coup. In his capacity as the chief commander of the BPLA, he has said. . .