The Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) allegedly abducted three men in Tedim township, torturing them for several hours before forcing the men and their families to leave their village in northern Chin State.
On Monday, ZRA Eastern Command troops abducted a teacher and police officer who’d joined the civil disobedience movement against the regime in Kyein Pee Kut. The wife of the third man who was detained is also a teacher.
The soldiers took the men to a Christian cemetery outside the village and interrogated them for three hours. They were released on the condition that they move out of the village by Saturday 25 June.
“If they don’t want to die, they must leave the village. Their family must also leave. There’s nothing they can do,” a resident of Tedim town, who asked that his name not be mentioned, told Khonumthung News.
The victims were unable to walk after being tortured and had to be carried home by villagers.
One man and his family have already moved away from Kyein Pee Kut, which has 100 homes and is located about 18 miles from Tedim.
The ZRA accused the men of spying on them for other armed groups in the area.
”They were also disrupting the opening of a government school in the village. That’s why we arrested them,” a statement released by the Zomi armed group said.
Last month, the ZRA welcomed the resumption of school operations under the military regime.
The armed group has attacked other groups fighting the dictatorship.
Last September, the ZRA raided a Chinland Defence Force (CDF) camp and May 2021 a camp with several resistance groups. In December, the ZRA reportedly killed the leader of the Zoland PDF, Cin Shang Suam. In June, 2021, the group attacked his camp and destroyed food and military equipment worth more than $3,000.
The Chinland Joint Defence Committee, which includes 17 Chin armed groups, including the Chin National Front/Chin National Army, designated the ZRA’s Eastern Command as a terrorist organisation in a statement in April.