A local anti-junta resistance force detained a junta prison department officer in Sagaing Region’s Monywa Township on Friday, and has continued to hold him in their custody.
The group, Fight for People, apprehended 53-year-old Myo Nyunt Aung—an engineer and deputy supervisor in the department—while he was on his way to a jail under construction near the village of Thazi, 20km northeast of Monywa town, a representative of the force said.
Spokesperson Thurein explained that Fight for People had received intel regarding Myo Nyunt Aung’s route, and that he was in plainclothes and travelling by a car when the group intercepted him.
He was travelling with an undisclosed number of persons who were also detained, but, according to Thurein, would be released if it was determined that they did not have military ties.
He claimed that the officer had not been harmed, and that the defence force had been providing him with treatment for an underlying medical condition, spondylolysis, or a stress fracture of a vertebrae in the spine.
“He’s not feeling very well, so we are providing him medical help. His spondylolysis is acting up due to the weather and exhaustion,” the spokesperson told Myanmar Now.
Fight for People is recognised as the fourth squadron of the Monywa People’s Defence Force’s (PDF) Battalion 2, and falls under the elected National Unity Government’s (NUG) chain of command.
Myanmar Now was unable to obtain comment from the NUG’s defence department on the detention of the officer.
The jail in question near Thazi has reportedly been under construction for more than a year.
NUG officials recently told Myanmar Now that a total of 300 district-specific PDF battalions had been formed nationwide since the coup, and that a total of 250 additional People’s Defence Teams—known by the Burmese acronym Pa Ka Pha—had also been established, and that they would continue to challenge the junta’s claim to power.
