Myanmar junta troops killed two senior citizens and torched around 80 houses during their raid on a small village in Yesagyo Township, Magwe Region on Saturday, according to residents.
At 5 am, around 80 soldiers and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia from the pro-regime village of Sin Chaung attacked Kaing Ma Gyi village, home to 150 households, in the west of Yesagyo township.
The unit was reportedly led by the notorious Pyu Saw Htee militia leader Nga Lin, the son-in-law of former military general U Soe Maung, who was President’s Office minister during the U Thein Sein administration from 2010 to 2015.
The junta raid came a day after Yesagyo Township’s People’s Defense Force and another resistance group from neighboring Pakokku Township killed six pro-junta militia members and seized their weapons and ammunition after ambushing their vehicle on the road from Gwe Cho to Sin Chaung.
Saturday’s raid on Kaing Ma Gyi saw junta forces use heavy weapons against residents fleeing to the forests, said locals.
A Yesagyo PDF official told The Irrawaddy on Monday that regime and Pyu Saw Htee militia forces ransacked the village and took valuables away in a truck before torching the houses.
An elderly woman reportedly died after being trapped in her burning house while a 70-year-old disabled male villager was tortured to death by junta forces outside the village, according to Yesagyo PDF.
“One of the old man’s eyes was cut with a knife, while his head was also crushed before troops dumped his body outside the village,” said the Yesagyo PDF official, who saw the victim’s body.
The PDF official also said the military unit led by Pyu Saw Htee leader Nga Lin frequently harassed small villages nearby after failing to halt growing resistance in the township.
Several hundred Kaing Ma Gyi villagers whose houses were burned down in junta arson attacks are now in need of humanitarian aid.
Since the February 2021 coup, a total of 74,874 houses had been torched across the country by junta and affiliated forces as of July 31, according to Data for Myanmar, an independent group that monitors junta arson attacks.
