Two shepherds were killed in Sagaing Township in the region of the same name on Saturday, with locals suspecting that junta-trained Pyu Saw Htee militias operating nearby were responsible for the killings.
The victims were Myint Kyaw, who was in his 50s, and Moe San Oo, in his 40s. Both were residents of Lin Ta Lu village, which is located west of the Mandalay-Shwebo road, some 20 miles northwest of the Sagaing urban area.
According to two local sources, the two herders took their flock to the wooded area outside the village on Friday evening. Locals initiated a search for Myint Kyaw and Moe San Oo when they saw the sheep return to the village at nightfall without the two men, and found their bodies on Saturday morning.
“The herd came back and the men didn’t. Next morning, we heard that they had been killed, so we left the village to pick up their bodies,” a man from Lin Ta Lu said.
The Lin Ta Lu villagers found Myint Kyaw and Moe San Oo’s bodies with gunshot wounds to their faces. They were found near Kywel Pon village, which is located six miles west of Lin Ta Lu and is a known stronghold of the junta-allied Pyu Saw Htee militias.
“On October 12th, the day before they were killed, we heard that the resistance forces had set explosives for the pro-junta forces to trigger. I think the herders didn’t know where the explosives were laid. I think they got too close, and may have aroused the militia members’ suspicion, leading to their shooting,” the Lin Ta Lu villager said.
He added that he was not certain of who the killers were, but noted that the bodies had been found near a Pyu Saw Htee stronghold and cited other herdsmen from Lin Ta Lu who said they heard gunshots at around 4pm on Friday.
According to local sources, the two victims had no connection to the resistance. Myint Kyaw dedicated most of his time to breeding and raising sheep, while Moe San Oo earned some money as a palm tree climber in addition to sheep breeding.
The men’s bodies were buried on the evening of October 14. Myint Kyaw is survived by six children, while Moe San Oo is survived by two daughters, including a one-month-old infant.
The military council has made no public statements regarding this incident.
Kywel Pon is located near the east bank of the Mu River, northwest of Sagaing.
Less than a year after the February 2021 military coup, as the armed resistance to the military regime gathered strength in the area, the army enlisted the help of locally based Pyu Saw Htee militia members to establish a base there.
The junta and militia forces later launched raids from Kywel Pon on neighbouring villages in Sagaing Township where resistance fighters were allegedly present. In a December 2022 raid on the adjoining village of Ta Pa Yin Kwe, they shot and killed a monk and a civilian.
When Ei Ei Chun, a seven-year-old girl from Gon Hnyin Seik village, Myinmu Township, was injured by a military artillery strike in February of this year, locals said that junta forces stationed across the river in Kywel Pon had fired the shell. The child was blinded in her left eye, and two other villagers were severely injured in the incident.
Anti-junta resistance groups based in the area have repeatedly carried out raids and drone attacks targeting the pro-junta militia forces in Kywel Pon.
