The commanding officer of an interrogation center and a sergeant, both from the regime’s Military Intelligence unit, which is infamous for investigating, arresting and torturing anti-junta forces, were shot dead by local resistance groups on the Yangon-Mandalay highway on Sunday.
Major Than Htut, the commander of No. 1 Military Security Affairs Auxiliary Force, and Sergeant Myint Aung from his company were killed in an operation by combined forces of the Taungoo District People’s Defense Force (PDF) in Bago Region, according to a statement issued by Bago Region PDF.
The resistance forces ambushed the van the two were traveling in after receiving a tip from the Yangon UG Association (YUA).
“The military personnel defended themselves with weapons from inside the van. They were both killed along with two others traveling with them, according to the Taungoo PDF. The identities of the other two were unknown.
Bago Region PDF said Maj. Than Htut was in charge of an interrogation center on Pyay Road on the outskirts of Yangon.
“He and his colleague Sergeant Myint Aung investigated and arrested underground resistance group members by posing as arm traders,” Bago Region PDF said in the statement.
A member of Taungoo PDF said the two junta personnel were identified based on documents found at the scene. A dozen rounds of ammunition and two pistols were also seized.
“We destroyed the car by setting it on fire,” he said.
The Military Security Affairs Auxiliary Force is under the command of the Office of the Chief of Military Security Affairs (OCMSA), the regime’s major apparatus for extracting information from dissidents through torture. OCMSA operatives are believed to have tortured thousands of detainees. Hundreds of detainees have been killed in military custody in post-coup Myanmar.
The interrogation centers are overseen by Lieutenant General Ye Win Oo, one of the right-hand men of Myanmar regime boss Min Aung Hlaing.
