Thai military and immigration authorities raided a four-story building in the border town of Mae Sot on Wednesday, arresting two people, including a 14-year-old boy, on suspicion of belonging to Myanmar’s armed resistance movement.
Plainclothes intelligence officers were among 40 officials involved in the raid, which began at around 2pm, sources told Myanmar Now. The building is in an area with a high concentration of Myanmar nationals, including migrant workers, they said.
Some 200 residents living in 40 rooms were briefly detained at the site for interrogation. A 24-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy remained in custody after a drone, walkie-talkies, and some uniforms believed to be belonged to an anti-junta resistance force in Myanmar were found in one of the rooms.
Five people, including the 24-year-old man’s pregnant wife and two other women, were living in the room, the sources said.
One man who was among those questioned told Myanmar Now that the Thai authorities appeared to be looking for two individuals.
“They were showing a photo of two people and asking if they lived here,” said the man, who did not want to be identified.
Thailand’s Bangkok Post newspaper reported on Thursday that 83 “illegal migrants” from Myanmar had been detained in the raid, and that military equipment and medical supplies were also seized.
The report said the raid followed intelligence reports that buildings in the area served as a shelter for anti-regime groups from Myanmar. It also claimed that the seized materials included bullets, drones, and military uniforms.
However, a member of the New Myanmar Foundation, a Mae Sot-based civil society organisation, who was present with the Thai authorities during the raid said that the seized materials did not include military equipment or ammunition.
Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify this information.
Some residents of the raided building have since moved to other locations for security reasons, sources in the area told Myanmar Now.
Located in Thailand’s Tak Province opposite the town of Myawaddy in Karen (Kayin) State, Mae Sot has long been a safe haven for dissidents from Myanmar.
Since the country’s military seized power in a coup more than two years ago, the town has attracted large numbers of regime opponents, including civil servants taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement against military rule.
Many others have fled fighting in neighbouring Karen State, which has intensified since the military takeover due to the support of ethnic Karen forces for the anti-regime People’s Defence Force, the armed wing of the publicly-mandated National Unity Government.
The Myanmar regime has repeatedly called on Thailand’s military to arrest its opponents sheltering on Thai soil, accusing them of being “terrorists” and engaging in transnational crimes.
