Members of the People’s Defense Force (PDF) in Mandalay killed two police officers on Tuesday morning and confiscated a gun during a spontaneous attack.
Three fighters from the armed resistance group were riding in a car in Patheingyi Township when they saw the officers on a motorbike and decided to ram them, before stepping out of the vehicle and shooting them.
Bo Htun Tauk, a spokesperson for the group, contacted Myanmar Now on Friday to claim responsibility for the attack.
“Usually there would be five bikes or so, so since it was just two policemen we said screw it and hit them with the car,” he said. The bike got thrown onto the pavement. They were a surveillance officer and a sergeant.”
He added: “This is a revolution. We have to destroy any of them in any number. We have to put an end to anyone that helps them.”
Sergeant Aung Naing Win was killed on the spot, while the other officer, Htun Aung, died at the hospital.
They worked at the Patheingyi Township police station and were stationed at the Cooperative College, a police officer who has joined the Civil Disobedience Movement said, adding that they were shot on their way back from their lunch break.
“They hit them with the car, got out and shot them. One of the policemen stopped moving,” a woman who witnessed the killings told Myanmar Now.
The military council has not issued a statement on the deaths. The township police station did not answer a call seeking comment.
Police and soldiers in Mandalay have carried out night raids at striking railway workers’ housing complexes and other residential areas.
Surveillance police, traffic police and soldiers have also been patrolling Mandalay on bikes and in cars, often stopping people at random to check their phones and make arbitrary arrests.
Locals told Myanmar Now the junta’s forces are patrolling the town on bikes stolen from anti-coup protesters after vicious crackdowns.
Armed guerilla fighters began carrying out attacks against the regime’s forces across the city in May.
On June 1 a PDF fighter shot and killed a soldier and injured another outside a high school that had been forced to open by the military in response to a nationwide boycott of junta-controlled education.
Bo Nat Khat, the leader of the PDF in Mandalay, told Myanmar Now the group was also responsible for small explosions in five townships recently.
“Soon it’ll be just like a battle.,” he said. “So I’d like to urge Mandalay locals to avoid crowded spots, or places occupied by [soldiers and police]. We can’t afford to harm innocent civilians,” he said.
The military council has claimed rioters are setting off bombs in public places and burning down schools to harm childrens’ education.
State newspapers on Friday described attacks by PDF units across the country as “acts of terrorism” and urged people to contact the military if they have information about the attacks.
