Armed soldiers raided the home of a Mandalay family late Tuesday night, apparently to claim the body of a 7-year-old girl who had been murdered by regime forces earlier in the day.
May Thu, the sister-in-law of the dead girl, Khin Myo Chit, told Myanmar Now that the raid took place at around 11pm on Tuesday.
“They broke down the doors and ransacked the house,” she said, adding that the family had gone into hiding after her sister was fatally shot in the stomach by soldiers hours earlier.
“We were on the run [last night] because we were afraid they would come and take her body. Then they did as we thought,” she explained.
According to May Thu, the first few soldiers arrived at the family’s house in Mandalay’s Chanmyathazi township on motorbikes and were later followed by others who came in trucks.
Fearing that the soldiers would return, the family held a quiet funeral for Khin Myo Chit early Wednesday. Only a handful of close relatives were present, and full Islamic rites were not observed, her sister-in-law said.
She was buried at Kyarnikan cemetery at 11am on Wednesday.
Khin Myo Chit was sitting on her father’s lap when she was shot during a raid on their home in Chanmyathazi’s Aung Pin Le ward on Tuesday afternoon.
Soldiers also beat her 19-year-old brother with the butts of their guns until he was bloody and then took him away.
“We don’t know if he is still alive. What did we do wrong? We have nowhere else to run and they are searching for us,” May Thu said.
According to Mandalay-based media reports, at least 22 civilians were killed in the city between Sunday and Tuesday during attacks carried out by heavily armed regime forces.
