Regime forces killed four people, including two women in their 70s, during a raid on a village in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township on Sunday, according to local sources.

Residents of Tint Tei said that the attack on their village—located about 12km west of the town of Shwebo—was carried out by a column of around 80 junta troops and members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia who left the following day.

Villagers who later returned to inspect the damage said they found that around two-thirds of the village’s roughly 600 homes had been destroyed by fire. Four bodies were also discovered among the ruins.

“Three of them were burned to death. The other victim was captured and killed with his hands tied behind his back,” a member of the village’s defence team told Myanmar Now.

Two of the deceased—Than Naing and Daw Pan—were elderly women, he said, adding that they and a man in his 50s named Kyi Win were bedridden and unable to flee when the junta forces arrived and began torching their homes.

The fourth victim was identified as Phoe Kyaw, also in his 50s, who apparently died of a knife wound to his neck.

“He had feeble legs and couldn’t walk well. He stayed behind in the monastery because he thought they wouldn’t harm a person like him,” the village defence team member said.

Large quantities of rice stored in the village were also destroyed, according to a man who said that he lost his two-storey house, shop, and more than 7,000 bushels of rice.

“The whole village has been laid to waste. There was nothing left of my house after we put out the fire. I have nothing left,” he said.

He added, however, that he did not regret the loss.

“Many others have lost their lives and property. I am proud to lose everything for the revolution,” he said. “They did this to our village because we refuse to be ruled by the military. Our village has made history by not bowing down to the junta.”

At least two other villages in the area were also reportedly attacked on the same day.

Around half of the 250 houses in Kyauk Myint, a village less than 2km north of Tint Tei, were reportedly destroyed, while hundreds more were torched in Kyar, located about 15km to the north, according to local sources.

Myanmar’s junta routinely denies targeting civilians and their property, despite almost daily reports of raids and arson attacks by its forces in resistance strongholds.

Source – Myanmar Now