The Burma Army (BA) torched some houses near the cemetery in Rihkhawdar in what appears to be a retaliatory attack on the same day that the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) set off a remotely detonated landmine when junta soldiers entered the town.
“About 10 soldiers from BA come to the town every morning. They’ve never done anything wrong, they just buy something and return to their camp.
This morning, however, I heard the landmine explosion when they were attacked on their way to the market,” a local told Khonumthung News on condition of anonymity. After that, he heard heavy and light gunfire.
A PDF soldier said there were likely casualties in the 8am blast, but he couldn’t provide numbers.
After the attack, some people saw the army collect the bodies of two dead soldiers and take them back to one of their two hilltop camps near the town in Chin State, which is along the border with India.
According to a local, who also requested anonymity, some residents fled to India’s Mizoram State after the BA soldiers torched several homes in the town’s Ward 2 at noontime, but he couldn’t say how many houses were burnt.