Myanmar’s regime forces detained about 25 people, including women and children, sheltering at a monastery in Yinmabin Township, Sagaing Region, on Monday.
The Yoma resistance group said around 150 regime reinforcements arrived in Yinmabin town on Monday.
A Yoma fighter calling himself Phoenix said: “When the reinforcements arrived, they made the seizures at the monastery. The captives haven’t been released yet.”
He added that they were rumored to have been taken to a high school and agricultural and municipal offices where regime forces are based.
On February 27, 80 young children who attended a school at a monastery in Chin Pone village in Yinmabin Township were seized for 36 hours.
Phoenix said: “They want to pass Sunday, Armed forces Day, without any fighting in Yinmabin so they keep civilians as hostages.”
On March 16, regime forces killed two civilians and burned down about 30 buildings in two villages in the township.
On March 4 the regime cut mobile internet across Sagaing Region, except in Monywa, Sagaing, Kale and Shwebo, where its battalions are based.
Sagaing Region is a resistance stronghold. Across Myanmar, junta forces have torched at least 6,158 civilian homes since last year’s coup with Sagaing Region suffering nearly 60 percent of the damage, according to the independent research group, Data for Myanmar.
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