Three people were reported dead in Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township on Saturday following an explosion on the Mandalay-Mogok road, according to local sources.
A resident of the area said that the blast occurred near a toll gate on the outskirts of Madaya at around 2am. He added that 21 military trucks heading for Sagaing Region were parked at the gate at the time.
“I think that local resistance fighters were trying to lay landmines for that column when they had this accident,” the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Regime authorities collected the bodies, along with two motorcycles, an unexploded landmine, and some wire used for making explosives, soon after the incident occurred, he added.
One of the three people who died in the blast was a resident of Madaya, while another was believed to be from Thabeikkyin Township. The third person has not yet been identified.
Residents of villages located near the blast site say that junta forces have begun interrogations, raising fears of arrests and reprisals in an area that has already seen a number of attacks on civilians.
Last month, 11 houses were torched by junta soldiers in a village on the edge of Madaya Township, and on October 20, several loggers living in a hut in a forested area near Zeephyupin, in the eastern part of the township near Pyin Oo Lwin, were reportedly killed on suspicion of belonging to the anti-regime People’s Defence Force (PDF).
“They accused them of being PDF members. They were actually just regular loggers working in the forest. They killed, burned and buried them on the site. We only recently found their bodies,” said a local resident who asked not to be identified.
Five of the bodies were burned beyond recognition, and the huts they were living in were also torched, he added.
The regime’s information department was unavailable for comment on these reports, but earlier this month, it released a statement claiming that a large cache of weapons had been found in Panya, a village in Madaya Township.
According to the statement, which was released on October 8, regime forces had discovered 60 K22 guns and 165 bombs hidden in the village along with other weapons.
Madaya and Thabeikkyin townships are located in northern Mandalay Region, along a key route to Sagaing Region, where the military has been gearing up for a major offensive against resistance forces since late last month.
