Family members and residents fear for the lives of four Christian religious leaders who have gone missing after being detained by junta forces in Mindat Township, Chin State, the Mindat People’s Administration said on Thursday.
On July 16, drunken junta troops from Infantry Battalion 274 based in Mindat abducted a pastor and three church elders from a church in a residential ward of Mindat town.
The junta had allowed the church to be used as a shelter for displaced people fleeing clashes between regime forces and the Chin resistance.
The township people’s administration said junta troops arrested the four church members on the pretext that ‘too many’ motorbikes were found at the displacement shelter.
When first contacted about the situation of the detainees, military forces told church officials and family members that they were still interrogating the four Christian leaders.
But after a second inquiry on Wednesday, the military base said it did not know about the detainees.
The administration group said all four detainees are now believed to have been killed by junta troops during interrogation.
A Mindat People’s Administration official told Chin media outlet Khonumthung that residents living near the military base heard sounds of the detainees being tortured.
However, the military denied any knowledge of the detainees when asked to return the bodies of the Christian leaders, the official said.
The people’s administration condemned the military regime for arresting and killing religious leaders.
On April 10, a Christian pastor was among nine Chin residents killed in Chin’s Falam Township when junta aircraft bombed civilian targets in Waybula town, according to the Chin National Front, which has formed the Chin National Army (CNA) to confront the junta.
Two Chin pastors were also detained and tortured to death by junta forces in Chin’s Kanpetlet Township and nearby Saw Township in Magwe Region in early December 2021.
In September 2021, junta forces shot dead a pastor and cut off his finger to steal his wedding ring during a clash with resistance fighters in Thantlang town, Chin State.
