Hundreds of soldiers and police crush an anti-coup defence area in the Mandalay Region town, shooting indiscriminately and arresting locals, including one child
Myanmar Now
Published on Apr 19, 2021
The regime’s armed forces crushed an anti-coup stronghold in the Mandalay Region town of Myingyan on Sunday in an afternoon attack.
The Lanmadaw protest base in the town’s sixth ward was a primary defence area from which civilians had been using homemade guns, such as hunting rifles, to resist attacks by regime troops.
Some 200 members of the armed forces assaulted the stronghold from late afternoon until 10pm, according to locals.
An estimated six people, including a 13-year-old boy, were arrested after the attacks, a resident said.
Local sources said that there were casualties on the side of the armed forces, but that no civilians had died in the assault. Myanmar Now was unable to confirm these details at the time of reporting.
A Myingan local told Myanmar Now that troops were “shooting at every person they saw… like in a war zone.”
Residents rebuilt the Lanmadaw stronghold before dawn on Monday, but it was destroyed by the troops again at around 10am.
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The Lanmadaw stronghold in Myingyan is pictured before it was destroyed by the regime’s armed forces on April 18 (Supplied)
The Lanmadaw stronghold in Myingyan is pictured before it was destroyed by the regime’s armed forces on April 18 (Supplied)
Prior to the attack on Lanmadaw on Sunday, soldiers and police also indiscriminately shot at people near Myingan’s municipal market. At least one man was injured and in critical condition after being shot in the head, according to local sources.
He was a worker in a rice shop, and was shot by troops as he tried to close the shop’s doors as they passed by the area.
At around 4pm on Sunday, there was an explosion in front of the KBZ Bank branch in the town but no one was reported as injured. The cause of the blast is unknown.
According to local relief organisations, at least 23 people have been killed in Myingyan by the military and police in crackdowns on demonstrations since the February 1 coup.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group that has been monitoring the regime’s violence, reported that more than 730 people have been killed nationwide during the same period.
Source – Myanmar NOW ( https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/myingan-like-a-war-zone-as-regime-troops-destroy-protest-stronghold-locals-say )
