Almost all the inhabitants of Thangtlang have fled after the Burma Army (BA) shelled the town in northern Chin State, destroying houses and murdering a religious leader. This was a retaliatory attack after suffering defeat in battle with Chin resistance forces.
The BA shot dead in cold blood the Baptist pastor Cung Biak Hum, for trying to rally others to put out fires in at least 19 houses that were shelled on 18 September. After the shelling, most of the residents fled to the Indian border, to the mountains or to villages in Thangtlang Township.
“Now I’m living as an internally displaced person in a remote village. I don’t know if there are even 100 people left in Thangtlang town,” one man told Khonumthung News.
Chin National Army, the armed wing of the Chin National Front, and the civilian resistance group Chinland Defence Force killed about 30 BA soldiers in fighting in the centre of Thangtlang on Saturday and then escaped the town without casualties. The BA then attacked the area indiscriminately with artillery, killing Pastor Cung Biak Hum from Thangtlang Centenary Baptist Church.
Shootings in the streets began on 25 August. In the second week of September, half of the town’s population fled after the BA fired shells indiscriminately, killing civilians.
About 10,000 people used to live in Thangtlang, which is about 40 km northwest of Hakha, the capital of Chin State.
Sources reported fresh fighting near the town on Tuesday 22 September.