Thirteen soldiers were killed after a civilian threw a grenade at a temporary military encampment in the Naga Church in Sagaing Region this Sunday, April 11.
Two civilians in Tamu died during the firefight between soldiers with automatic weapons and locals armed with Tu Mee rifles (traditional hunting rifles). The rifles fire small iron balls and must be reloaded after each shot. A home burned to the ground during the violence in the border town near India.
In Kalay, authorities informed Biak Lawm Cuang’s family to retrieve his body from the military hospital. The twenty-six-year-old, who is the father of two children, went missing in the capital of Sagaing Region on April 7 when armed forces brutally attacked a protest camp in Tarhan Ward.
A local familiar with the situation told Khonumthung News that Biak Lawm Cuang’s body was badly decomposed making it difficult to determine if he was killed during the crackdown or during interrogation.
At least 12 protesters died in the protest camp after armed forces attacked with RPGs, mortar and gunfire. About 18 people were arrested during the brutal crackdown, which protesters described as being on the front lines of a real war.
Some members of the armed forces who were also injured are receiving medical care in the military hospital in town.
Myawaddy TV, the mouthpiece of the junta’s military council, reported recovering from the camp 15 homemade rifles, 12 airguns, 4 Tu Mees, 5 homemade grenades, 8 homemade landmines, 8 Molotov cocktails and 41 shotgun shells.
Twenty-nine protesters in Kalay have been killed by armed forces since the military took over the country during a coup on February 1.