At least two people were killed by the coup regime’s forces on Sunday, in Kachin state and the capital Naypyitaw, local residents and relief workers said
One was a night guard who was shot in the chest and thigh in an early morning attack by soldiers from the 77th Light Infantry Division in the Kachin town of Bhamo.
The victim was identified as 25-year-old Win Naing Oo, who was also known as Phoe Thar.
The soldiers raided Bhamo’s Khun Thar ward at around 3am and stayed until 10am. At least six people were injured during the attack, according to a night guard from that ward.
“They came to remove the sandbags that we set up. At that time, a person who was trapped near a police vehicle was shot,” said the night guard, who asked not to be named.
“He was from another ward. He came to ours to help us watch over our neighbourhood. I think he was trapped when the troops opened fire and people started to run,” he added. Thet Naing Oo was a resident of Pyinnyar Yattha ward but had friends in Khun Thar.
During the attack, troops raided about 25 houses and about 10 people who had been regularly participating in the anti-coup movement were arrested, according to a Bhamo resident.
“They destroyed barricades and arrested activists,” the resident said.
“There is a protest at Khun Thar ward every day. Residents there bang pots whenever the military comes into the neighbourhood. The ward is quite big and residents are united. That is why they came to attack the area after midnight,” she said.
The military’s spokesperson and officials at the Bhamo police station could not be reached for comment regarding the incident.
Despite relentless mass killings and nighttime raids by the military targeting opponents of the coup, people across Myanmar once again took to the streets on Sunday. There have now been almost daily nationwide protests for just under two months. Over 550 have been killed since the February 1 coup, including at least 43 children.
The movement also held an “Easter Egg Strike” to mark the Christian holiday by painting anti-regime slogans on eggs.
In Pyinmana, Naypyitaw, about 300 residents rallied on motorbikes and met with a violent crackdown by soldiers at around 2pm.
According to four sources – a medical worker, a rescue worker, and two protesters – at least one person was killed and another was critically injured.
Twenty-year-old Thein Tan Oo was shot in the back with live ammunition and died at the scene, a source who was at the protest told Myanmar Now.
“His body has not been taken to his family. The soldiers took it to the 1000-bed military hospital in Naypyitaw on a funeral service vehicle,” he said.
