Myanmar junta troops brutally killed six residents of Yinmabin and Pale townships in Sagaing Region and dumped their corpses under the North Yamar bridge on Wednesday, according to locals.
Regime troops detained the victims on August 10 as they traveled from Pale to Yinmabin.
U Phoe Nyan, 48, U Thein Ngwe, 44, Ko Zaw Myint Htay, 34 and Ko Zaw Myo Khaing, 22, were residents of Yinmabin’s Lae Naguk village. Their corpses were retrieved from the North Yamar creek.
All four were farmers who had been arrested as they entered the village to feed their cows, according to the Yinmabin information group.
“Their throats have been cut and they have multiple wounds all over the body. The victims were killed and then thrown into the water,” a spokesperson for Sagaing people’s support group told The Irrawaddy.
The two other victims were U Win Zaw Oo, 45, and Ko Kyaw Myo Win, 38, both from Pale Township.
A military lobbyist alleged that all six victims had been members of the People’s Defense Force, but locals denied this.
The villagers were arrested and killed by regime troops stationed in the compound of Chinese mining company Wanbao, according to the Yinmabin information group.
The Irrawaddy was unable to independently verify this information.
Troops based at the mine have been raiding and shelling surrounding villages frequently.
On Monday, a nine-year-old child was killed and five villagers wounded when troops protecting the mine shelled villages in neighboring Yinmabin Township. The attacks also forced around 7,000 residents from five villages to flee their homes.
