Myanmar Now
Published on May 26, 2021
A 24-year-old woman was shot and killed in Magwe Region’s Salin Township on Tuesday night during a raid carried out in response to anti-coup graffiti.
About 70 soldiers and police stormed the village of Tawseint at around 7:30pm on Tuesday after residents painted slogans opposing the education system under the military regime on the gate of a local high school.
“They were firing non-stop, at least 90 or 100 rounds. I also had to flee,” said a villager who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity.
Seven people, including two women who had been shot while trying to escape, were arrested after the raid, he added.
Saung Hnin Hmon, the mother a six-year-old girl, was shot in the head and killed instantly. Her body was returned to the village the following day.
The whereabouts of her daughter, who went missing after the raid, remains unknown.
An elderly woman, a 13-year-old girl, and a disabled woman who tried to flee on one leg were also arrested, but were later released, according to a village resident.
Most of Tawseint’s roughly 2,000 residents have gone into hiding since the junta’s forces returned on Wednesday morning, local sources told Myanmar Now.
“Many people are still in the forest. Those who remained in the village don’t dare try to leave now, and those in the forest are afraid to return to their homes,” one source said.
“We have not had a grain of rice to eat the whole day. We are still hiding in the forest,” he added.
Tawseint is located near three military bases. Light infantry brigades 153, 254, and 255 are all stationed in the area.
At least 828 people have been killed by the regime since it seized power on February 1, according to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
As resistance to the coup continues, more than half of the nation’s teachers are on strike and some 90% of students refuse to enroll under the regime’s education system, according to the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation.
Source – Young mother shot dead during junta raid triggered by anti-coup graffiti | Myanmar NOW (myanmar-now.org)
