Three villagers found dead after Myanmar army raids in Khin-U

Three bodies, including one that had been decapitated, were discovered in a village in Sagaing Region’s Khin-U Township on Thursday following two days of junta raids, according to local resistance sources. The bodies were found in three different locations in Kalon, a village in the western part of the township, a member of the Khin-U People’s Defence Force (PDF) told Myanmar Now on Friday. “They had gunshot wounds to their heads and bodies. One of the villagers was beheaded and his head was placed on a motorcycle about 30 metres away from his body,” the PDF source said. The decapitated victim was identified as Thein Lwin, a displaced resident of the village of Thayat Kone, while the other two were from Kalon and the nearby village of Kin Pyit, the source added. The discovery followed two days of raids on Kalon and Thar Wut Hti, another village located a short distance west of Kalon on the eastern bank of the Mu River. According to a resident of Thar Wut Hti, more than a quarter of the village’s homes were destroyed by arson attacks carried out by the regime forces responsible for the raids. “At least 159 out of 600 houses were burned down in Thar Wut Hti, and Kalon lost around 15 houses,” the villager said. The Khin-U PDF also claimed that at least 12 villagers were detained by junta troops during the raids, but Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify this information. According to some sources, nine detainees were later released. Some 20,000 villagers from nearly a dozen villages in the area were displaced during the two-day rampage, which is believed to have been carried out by the “Ogre Column,” a unit notorious for committing atrocities against civilians in resistance strongholds. The column has been accused by local resistance forces of butchering civilians, including pregnant women, as a warning against supporting anti-regime armed groups. At least three members of the column were killed during a brief clash that broke out in Thar Wut Hti on Thursday, according to resistance sources. A resident of the village confirmed that one body, believed to be that of a junta soldier, had been found in a house that had been destroyed by fire. “The body was severely burned, but we saw charred remnants of his uniform,” the villager said.

Three villagers found dead after Myanmar army raids in Khin-U

The raids are believed to have been carried out by the “Ogre Column,” a junta army unit notorious for committing atrocities against civilians

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