People’s Defence Force (PDF) fighters in the Sagaing Region township of Tamu said they killed five police officers, including a major who leads an anti-narcotics unit, when they attacked a military vehicle using handmade explosives on Monday afternoon.
The officers were travelling towards Kalay in a military issue Mitsubishi Pajero four-by-four when the fighters detonated the explosives between the villages of Wi Toke and Yan Lin Hpai, said Thar Gyi, a spokesperson from the Tamu PDF’s Battalion 3.
The attack was carried out under the supervision of a PDF leader named Zee Kwat, he added.
“It started with the detonation of the explosives and then ended with a brief clash. We gathered up our things and went back after the clash,” Thar Gyi said.
The PDF said those killed were Police Major Thaung Myint, the commander of an anti-narcotics unit, Police Captain Win Naing, Police Lieutenant Moe Htet Naing, Corporaal Zaw Min Aung and Lance Corporal Kyaw Zin Hteik.
The attackers confiscated a revolver pistol, two MA-13 submachine guns, ammunition, Kevlar vests and police uniforms, the Tamu PDF said.
Photos seen by Myanmar Now showed a car that had crashed with the bodies of dead police officers scattered nearby. The Tamu PDF released a photo of the weapons and police uniforms it confiscated.
Police Major Thaung Myint was in Tamu on Monday to testify as a witness in an illegal drugs case. He travelled from Kalay to Tamu with the two corporals.
Police Captain Win Naing, who was being transferred from Tamu to Pathein, and Police Lieutenant Moe Htet Naing, who was being transferred to Yangon, caught a lift with the major on his return trip.
Last week the Tamu PDF killed several prison guards and lost two of their own fighters during an attack on the Oak Pho Kanbaung slave labour camp at the Indian border.
On the same day as the attack, soldiers rounded up and interrogated residents from the nearby village of Watshu.
