Junta troops on Wednesday abandoned a police station in Sagaing Region’s Budalin Township after a yearlong siege by regional resistance forces.
The regime had heavily fortified the rural police station in Kutaw village with bunkers and trenches, but People’s Defense Force (PDF) groups managed to cut off supply routes and finally forced junta troops to abandon it.
PDF groups attacked the police station three times during the siege and also ambushed junta reinforcements dispatched to attack them from behind, according to the spokesman of Monywa District Battalion 20 based in Budalin.
In September, the regime sent a column of 85 soldiers to the rescue, but almost all were killed in the ambush, the spokesman said.
In its latest effort, a junta column from the Northwestern Command in the regional capital of Monywa some 48 km away used civilians as human shields to rescue comrades and salvage weapons from the police station.
By the time they abandoned the station on Wednesday, only about 30 junta soldiers and police remained, the rest having either fled or been killed in prior fighting.
A dozen motorbikes, a car, some rice, and military equipment were seized from the station. Anti-regime groups reported that the fleeing troops planted landmines at the station.
One source on the ground said: “It’s a good result for us to have gained the base without needing to fight very hard. Now junta troops have withdrawn from Kutaw, it will become easier for us to carry out military operations in the area.”
Junta troops abducted some 200 civilians and forced them to carry their weapons and ammunition as they left the police station for Budalin town. The abductees were released on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.
A 25-year-old male abductee was killed when he tried to flee and his body dumped near Talai village, according to residents.
Resistance groups say regime troops have also been driven out of Mahamyaing Wildlife Sanctuary along the Kalewa-Yagyi road.
Around 200 junta personnel, including those who abandoned the police station, remain deployed in two positions near Budalin’s General Administration Department and are reportedly preparing for more raids.
