Villagers have discovered the mutilated, charred bodies of five locals, who were arrested in Indaw township in Myanmar’s northerly Sagaing region a month earlier, according to an official from the Indaw Revolution anti-junta militia.
He identified the men as 25-year-old Nyi Nyi; 25-year-old Law Shote; 38-year-old Aung Min Thike; 38-year-old Nay Lin Tun; and 48-year-old Poe Shan, all from Man He village.
The men, discovered in a nearby forest Monday, were arrested when a junta column entered the village on March 24. The Indaw Revolution official, who declined to be named for security reasons, told RFA troops had claimed the men were PDF members killed in battle.
“The military council announced on March 24 that five PDF personnel were killed but there was no fighting at that time,” the official said.
“A month later, when we found the burned bodies on the ground, we realized that these bodies were the five villagers.”
RFA called Aye Hlaing, the junta spokesman for Sagaing region, on Wednesday for comment on the claims that troops had killed villagers rather than defense force members, but the calls went unanswered.
Sagaing region has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the country, with junta troops carrying out air raids on civilian targets and razing villages thought to support the People’s Defense Forces who have been fighting for the restoration of democracy in the country, following the February 2021 coup.
On Sunday troops tortured and beheaded a man they arrested in Sagaing region's Ta Pa Yin Kwe, setting fire to homes there in the second raid on the village this year.
Nearly 3,500 civilians have been killed across the country since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.