The junta sent soldiers to Rihkhawdar in Chin State on the border to crack down on Chin resistance groups collecting taxes from travellers on the Tedim – Haimwel – Kalay road.
According to a local from the border town near India, about 40 regime soldiers have taken up positions on Teo Chaung Mountain to monitor the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) and the People’s Defence Force that are operating in the No #2 Border Trading Zone.
It leaked out that on 13 February, regime-appointed Chin State Chief Minister Nguen San Awng had asked regime leader Min Aung Hlaing to send Burma Army (BA) soldiers to Rihkhawdar to prevent civilian resistance fighters from collecting money at a checkpoint along the road, just two miles from the regime’s official camp in the trading zone.
According to locals, BA had previously stationed a unit in Ward 1, but the hilltop in Ward 2 provides a strategic vantage point to monitor CDF and PDF activity on the road around Rihkhawdar.
Anticipating possible violence, motorists travelling from Kalay to Rihkhawdar have stopped at Lai Thwee in Tedim Township since the soldiers arrived on 27 February.
The junta has launched a large-scale clearance campaign to evict resistance fighters in Chin State and the Sagaing Region since the fall. The groups have slain many BA soldiers during ambushes, despite being vastly outnumbered and poorly armed.