Myanmar junta troops on Wednesday raided Pazi Gyi Village in Kantbalu Township, Sagaing Region—which last week suffered the deadliest ever air strike by the Myanmar military—resulting in nearly 10,000 displaced villagers from the area being forced to flee once again, according to residents.
Around 200 regime troops from Sabel Nago Village in Mandalay Region traveled to Ma Lae Village in Kantbalu Township on Thursday night. Then, the troops headed to Pazi Gyi Village, which is 6.4 km from Ma Lae, on Wednesday morning, according to a resident.
“An Mi-35 helicopter and jet fighter flew over while the troops were heading to Pazi Gyi Village this afternoon,” a resident told The Irrawaddy.
Due to the regime raids, displaced villagers have been forced to move from the places where they are currently sheltering.
“The troops are currently in our village. We don’t know what they will do next,” a Pazi Gyi villager told The Irrawaddy.
A military jet fighter dropped two bombs on a house in Pazi Gyi where a housewarming ceremony was being held on April 11.
More than 170 civilians including 42 children were killed and 30 injured in the regime air strike. The attack was followed by several rounds of gunfire from an Mi-35 combat helicopter.
The regime raid on the village a week after launching the deadly air strike has left the residents worried and scared.
Ko Thura, a spokesperson for the Kantbalu People’s Security Force, said the regime troops are currently stationed at the Pazi Gyi Village monastery.
“I think they will try to erase the traces left by their air strike in Pazi Gyi,” Ko Thura told The Irrawaddy.
A resident said regime troops searched civilian houses but haven’t torched them. They have arrested Pazi Gyi villagers, forcing them to falsely testify that the villagers were not killed in a military air strike.
“After arresting the villagers, they might force them to say that the villagers were killed by their own mines. I think that’s why they came to arrest the villagers,” a resident told The Irrawaddy.
Currently, along with those from Pazi Gyi, villagers from Htan Taw, Lay Twin Zin, Kyaut Lone Gyi, Zin Chaung and six other villages are once again fleeing as a result of the raid.
