At least 11 bodies were discovered in Kya Paing Village in Monywa Township in the resistance stronghold of Sagaing Region after the village was raided by junta troops and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia groups on Saturday, residents and resistance forces said.
Around 50 Pyu Saw Htee militia and junta troops from Taw Pu Village raided Kya Paing on Saturday morning, Monywa People’s Defense Force (PDF) said.
“We found 10 charred bodies in Kya Paing Village. Six bodies were found inside a house and the other bodies were spotted beside it. Another person was shot dead while attempting to escape,” a representative of Monywa PDF said.
All of the deceased were civilians, males in their 30s and 40s. They were not PDF members, he added.
Most of the residents of the village were arrested by junta troops during the raid as they had been unable to flee their homes.
At least 60 villagers were detained inside a pagoda compound on Saturday while Pyu Saw Htee militia carried out lootings, according to Chindwin Attack Force, a resistance group based in Monywa Township.
“They killed 11 male villagers and released the other detainees. They also carried out lootings and arson,” said a member of the group who helped to extinguish the fires.
Nearly 100 houses were incinerated by the Pyu Saw Htee militia, according to resistance groups.
Kya Paing, located to the south of Monywa town, has around 400 houses.
The raid and killing spree were conducted in retaliation for a resistance attack on a Pyu Saw Htee base in Nga Pu Village on Friday, a resistance member said.
Nyan Lynn Thit, an independent group that monitors regime violence, claimed on Nov. 3 that junta troops had carried out at least 27 massacres, killing 188 people, during the four months from May to August.
