Junta troops killed and burned the bodies of a pregnant woman and three men in a gold mining area of Sagaing region’s Pinlebu township in Myanmar, the local People’s Defense Force told RFA on Friday.
They said the victims were 21-year-old Wine Wine, who was eight months pregnant, her father Set Hlaing who owned a gold mine in the township, 21-year-old Shan Lay and Nyi Nyi whose age wasn’t given.
Their burned bodies were found on Monday, according to the defense force information officer, who didn’t want to be named for safety reasons.
“It happened next to Nant Ta Hauk creek beside Mu Le village at around 11 a.m. on August 14,” he said.
“They killed them, and burned a house and dumped all the bodies in there.”
Troops entered Mu Le village in the first week of August, arresting and interrogating locals. They burned more than 30 houses when they left the village, locals told RFA on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The latest killings come after the troops entered the village for a second time this month.
RFA was unable to independently verify the claims of the People’s Defense Force because phone and internet connections to Pinlebu township have been cut.
The junta hasn’t released a statement on the killings.
RFA contacted the junta spokesperson for Sagaing region, Tin Than Win, who said he was unaware of the incident.
Artillery in Bago
Meanwhile, junta troops shelled three townships in the Bago region between Sunday and Wednesday, killing four civilians, including two teenage students, according to the Karen National Union, or KNU.
A resident of Kyaukkyi township in Nyaunglebin district told RFA that the teens died after a shell exploded inside a KNU-run school in Pe Thaung village on Sunday.
A barrage of heavy artillery has targeted several villages in Shwegyin township this week, the KNU said in a statement.
A resident of Shwegyin, who refused to be named for security reasons, told RFA that junta troops are firing heavy artillery at all times during the day and night.
“There are more and more times when I had to flee my village fearing that I could be hit by the junta’s shelling,” he said. “Although we’ve dug bomb shelters to withstand the shelling, the earth is too wet in this rainy season.”
A local defense official in Nyaunglebin district also said that junta troops are targeting civilians and firing upon them with heavy artillery weapons as a defensive strategy.
“They are anxiously preparing their defenses and fire tons of artillery at many places without specific targets,” the official said. “Tons of weapons. In doing so, they hit the civilians.”
RFA reached out to Tin Oo, the military junta’s spokesman for the Bago region, for a response to the allegations, but he could not be contacted.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.