People’s Defence Force (PDF) fighters in Bago Region killed five police officers on Tuesday in an attack on a checkpoint on the Yangon-Mandalay highway, an officer from the group said.
The Bago Region PDF launched a 3am ambush on the Zahar Police Checkpoint in Pyu Township, 110 miles north of Yangon, and seized two rifles from the dead police officers.
The junta confirmed that five officers had died in a statement on Tuesday, local media outlets reported. A man from a social welfare group in Pyu told Myanmar Now that several police officers were killed in the attack.
“They didn’t get to shoot back at us since it was an ambush,” the PDF officer said. “However, when we went inside the checkpoint, one of them shot back and a PDF member was injured. It was not a fatal injury though.”
At least six police officers were at the checkpoint at the time of attack but all were in plain clothes except for the one on guard duty.
The PDF carried out the attack “in order to disrupt the military council’s mechanisms and to protect the civilians,” he said.
The Bago Region PDF is made up of chapters from 28 townships and is under the supervision of the defence department of the underground National Unity Government (NUG), he said.
The NUG said late last month that it had begun forming a nationwide chain of command aimed at unifying numerous self-organising resistance groups in order to launch coordinated nationwide attacks against the junta.
Calls to the Pyu Township police station and the Zahar Police Checkpoint seeking comment on Tuesday’s attack went unanswered.
The Bago Region PDF killed another police officer during a clash with patrolling officers in Pyu on October 23, the PDF officer said.
