A column of junta troops conducted a mass arrest of people in the eastern part of Kachin State’s Hpakant Township on Friday evening for use as human shields before continuing its advance to Hpakant Town, multiple sources said.
A resident of the township said at least 30 people were arrested by the about 70-member column in Nant Yar Village before it departed the village on Saturday morning. The column had arrived in the village on Thursday, sources said.
A news report from Kachin State’s 7Stars media said the junta troops first arrested residents of Nant Yar Village, before arresting more residents of Kat Hmaw and Saing Hpara villages. It said the total number of civilians arrested was over 100.
Kachin Human Rights Watch also put the number at more than 100. In a statement, it said the civilians would be used as human shields.
Kachin Independence Army (KIA) spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu said he had not yet received a report on the arrests, but added that junta troops habitually arrest civilians for use as human shields and for land-mine clearance.
Dr Tu Hkaung, the National Unity Government’s minister for natural resources and environmental conservation, said in a social media post that Light Infantry Division 33 had arrested about 100 people—including travelers, internally displaced persons, and villagers—for use as human shields.
The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the number of people arrested by the junta troops in the township.
Residents of the township said they had yet to hear that any of those arrested in Nant Yar and nearby villages had been released.
The junta column left the jade-mining town of Kamaing on Tuesday and was ambushed by the KIA before it arrived in Nant Yar Village on Thursday, sources said.
The column comprises troops from Light Infantry Battalion 12 under Light Infantry Division 33, the statement from Kachin Human Rights Watch group.
Colonel Naw Bu said there had been no clashes between the KIA and the junta’s military in Hpakant Township yesterday and today.
Township residents also said the column had not been attacked by the KIA on Friday and Saturday, but it was firing indiscriminately as it advanced through the township, forcing village residents to flee into forests nearby.
The column arrived in Kat Hmaw Village on Saturday afternoon, where it is resting, local media reports said.
Tension between the junta’s military and the KIA has risen over the past week along the road linking Hpakant Town with the state’s capital, Myitkyina. Both the KIA and junta troops have blocked sections of the road, suspending travel between the town and the capital.
