A total of six people affiliated with Myanmar’s ousted ruling party were killed earlier this week by pro-junta forces in Mandalay Region’s Nyaung-U Township, local sources reported.
Three of the victims—Win Aung Moe, 52, Nyein Chan Min, 42, and Thaw Mi Mi Win, 32—were found dead early Monday morning, hours after they were taken from their homes in Singu, a village some 30km southwest of the town of Nyaung-U.
“They were detained by soldiers shortly past midnight and their bodies were dumped the next morning,” said an officer of the Bagan Ogre Force, a local resistance group, noting that the soldiers were not in uniform and were driving a civilian vehicle.
All three victims had their throats slashed, he added.
On Tuesday, a group using a Telegram channel called Bo Talk claimed responsibility for the killings, saying that the victims were supporters of the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) government and had backed “terrorist acts”.
The channel is linked to Thwe Thout, a pro-junta terror group that also murdered five men in Mandalay’s Natogyi Township on Monday.
Another victim found dead the same day was Kyaw Win, a member of the Nyaung-U District NLD who was taken from his home in Sal Ywar, a village some 30km east of Nyaung-U near the town of Ngathayauk, late Sunday night.
Residents of the village say they discovered his body on the side of a road on Monday morning. They said that Kyaw Win, who was in his 60s, had been stabbed repeatedly and was still wearing the handcuffs that had been placed on him when he was abducted by men in plain clothes the night before.
Two more abductions were also reported in Nyaung-U on Monday. Residents of the town said that Myint Zaw Linn—the 48-year-old younger brother of NLD MP Myint Sein—was surrounded by a mob of about 20 people at around 7pm and found dead near a rail line the next morning.
Myint Kyaw, a 50-year-old resident of the village of Taung Bi, near the old city of Bagan, was reportedly stabbed to death after being grabbed by a group of men on three motorcycles. His assailants were believed to be members of Thwe Thout or the pro-regime Pyu Saw Htee militia.
The recent killings come just days after the assassination of Aung Min Hteik, a representative of the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, who was killed by a local defence force in the village of Sint Ku in Nyaung-U Township last Thursday.
Thwe Thout, a group that was formed earlier this year, has killed dozens of NLD members and other regime opponents since launching what it called “Operation Red” in late April.