At least 12 members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia were killed earlier this week during a raid on their camp in Sagaing Region’s Taze Township, according to local resistance sources.
The camp, located near the village of Nar Taung Kya in Taze Township, was attacked at around 3pm on Tuesday and successfully overrun less than an hour later, the sources said.
There were about 40 newly recruited Pyu Saw Htee members manning the camp at the time, they added.
“They had only recently completed their military training. They were a new group formed after a visit to the village by U Warthawa,” an officer of the Taze Township’s anti-regime People’s Defence Team told Myanmar Now.
U Warthawa is an ultranationalist Buddhist monk who has played a major role in forming Pyu Saw Htee groups in central Sagaing.
“The villagers accepted the training and formed their own Pyu Saw Htee group, so that’s why they were terminated like this,” said the People’s Defence Team officer.
Four carbine guns, three shotguns, nine grenades, three cartridges, and about 200 rounds of ammunition—all supplied by the military—were also seized in the raid, he added.
In addition to the Taze Township People’s Defence Team, which operates under the direct command of the Defence Ministry of Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government (NUG), troops from the Shwebo District chapter of the NUG’s People Defence Force (PDF) also took part in the raid.
Myanmar Now was unable to independently confirm casualty figures provided by the resistance groups.
Myanmar’s military junta has pushed hard to form Pyu Saw Htee groups in Sagaing Region, where it has faced fierce resistance to its rule from the PDF and other groups since it seized power in a coup more than two years ago.
Early last year, leaked documents confirmed that the regime was arming villagers in restive parts of the country to support the military’s campaign to eliminate the resistance forces.
Minutes from a meeting between coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and junta-appointed chief ministers, held in Naypyitaw in February of last year, showed that 77 military-backed militias had been created in Sagaing Region alone.
It also later emerged that the regime had been using state funds reserved for disaster relief, regional development, and monastic institutions to finance the militia groups.
Among the recipients of the aid was U Warthawa, who was given money to pay Pyu Saw Htee recruits in Taze and other central Sagaing townships.
There have also been reports of regime forces attacking villages that have refused to form Pyu Saw Htee groups.
