Myanmar’s junta has seized over 50 young men in Bago Region’s Thayawady District over the past three months, forcing most into the military and killing others, according to residents and local anti-regime forces.
The men, all aged between 18 and 25, were arrested at checkpoints manned by junta personnel between mid-February and May 11, following activation of the national conscription law on Feb. 10.
Most were arrested at checkpoints on the Yangon-Pyay road and at Kunchankone village outside Letpadan Town, said a Thayawady District People’s Defense Force (PDF) member.
“More than 30 were arrested at the Meeninchaung checkpoint [on the Yangon-Pyay road] while another 20-plus were arrested at Kunchankone checkpoint,” he told The Irrawaddy.
Those detained were mostly from Minhla, Letpadan and Thayawady townships. Some were released after paying a ransom but others were sent to an interrogation center in Okpho town before being drafted into the Myanmar military.
A Letpadan PDF member said junta soldiers were forcibly conscripting young men in some villages in Letpadan Township. The Irrawaddy could not independently verify his report.
Aung Myo Win, a resident of Nga Hla San village in Minhla Township, went missing after he returned from Thailand on April 5. His family members later learned that he was stopped at the Meeninchaung checkpoint and sent to the Okpho interrogation center, said a source close to the family.
Three of the men stopped at Kunchankone checkpoint and reportedly sent to the interrogation center were later found dead 70 kilometers north near Konethar village in Paungde Township, Pyay District. The bodies of the victims, two from Letpadan Township and one from Minhla Township, were found dumped with lanyards of the Dark Grim Reaper Group around their necks. The group is believed to be a junta-linked militia like the Thwe Thout, which targets National League for Democracy supporters in Mandalay. Similar junta-affiliated death squads operate in other areas of the country.
Pro-junta Telegram channels accused the three victims of being resistance members, saying they were killed in retaliation for the Paungde PDF’s assassination of a Konethar village administrator in Paungde Township on May 5. The Telegram reports carried photos of the bodies.
“A vehicle coming from the direction of Paungde dumped the bodies outside Konethar on the night of May 5. Their bodies were discovered the next morning. Junta soldiers took away the bodies in an ambulance at around 10 am. We saw ‘Dark Grim Reaper Group’ lanyards around the corpses’ necks,” said a resident.
Anti-regime groups rejected the pro-junta Telegram reports, saying the three victims were civilians killed in junta interrogation.
On April 22, the body of a 20-year-old man was found dumped on a street near Oakposu Ward in Letpadan Township with a ‘Dark Grim Reaper Group’ lanyard. It is unclear if he was arrested at a junta checkpoint before being killed.
The regime often labels reports of arbitrary arrest of civilians as fake news designed to cause public panic.
Since the 2021 coup, more than 40 individuals have been killed and dumped by roadsides in Bago Region. The regime however denies having ties with vigilante militia groups including the infamous Pyu Saw Htee.
