Hundreds of residents of Pyin Oo Lwin – a garrison town in Mandalay Region – have been fleeing since Thursday due to fears of an imminent attack by an ethnic army and allied resistance forces, residents say.

Family members of military personnel stationed in the town, which is home to the Defense Service Academies – Myanmar’s West Point – and other military training schools, were among the first to start fleeing the town about 70 kilometers east of the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay, residents say.

Hundreds of vehicles were seen jamming the eastern entrance to Mandalay on Thursday as the exodus from Pyin Oo Lwin accelerated, witnesses said.

The garrison town has been under threat since the fall of the headquarters of the junta’s North Eastern Military Command in Lashio, the capital of northern Shan State, to the Brotherhood Alliance and allied resistance groups coordinating Operation 1027.

Operation 1027 resumed in northern Shan State on June 25.

Operation 1027, a coordinated offensive by the Brotherhood Alliance of three ethnic armies and allied People’s Defense Force (PDFs) units under the command of the National Unity Government, began in October last year. It succeeded in capturing most of northern Shan State before a Chinese-brokered ceasefire brought it to a halt.

The operation resumed in June and expanded to northern townships of Mandalay Region, where alliance member the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and PDFs captured Nawnghkio, which borders Pyin Oo Lwin, and two other towns in northern Mandalay.

The TNLA and its resistance allies are clashing with regime forces near the border of Pyin Oo Lwin and Nawnghkio townships, resistance groups say.

The junta’s garrison town is their next target if the TNLA and its allies continue their coordinated offensive in Mandalay.

Zin Yaw, a former soldier who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), described Pyin Oo Lwin as the last target for resistance groups from northern Shan State seeking to enter Mandalay City.

Linn Htet Aung, a former captain in the junta’s military who joined the CDM, predicted that the garrison town would fall to resistance forces quickly. “Pyin Oo Lwin will fall in a short period of time after it is attacked because the town is designated only for military training schools, not for combat,” he said.

He also said that several regime officers, including lieutenant colonels, from junta bases in Pyin Oo Lwin have recently contacted People’s Embrace – a group formed by former soldiers who joined the civil disobedience movement – for help defecting.

A businessman helping residents of the town escape said most of those fleeing are going to Mandalay, Naypyitaw and Yangon. “Most are rich people and family members of the regime’s military personnel. But I am only providing relocation services to civilians, not people related to the military regime,” he added.

The junta has sent combat troops from other regions of Myanmar to defend the town, an analyst closely monitoring Operation 1027 said, explaining that its military personnel in the town are not combat troops. Many are instructors and students at military training schools and defense academies, he said.

One resident of the town said she and her family are staying to safeguard their property.  “We have decided not to leave because we are worried that our property will be stolen by thieves. Many of my neighbors also decided to do the same. So, I am digging a bomb shelter at my house,” she said.

The junta on Thursday dismissed news reports that relatives of regime personnel and other residents were fleeing the garrison town as fake news. It accused independent media of fanning instability in Pyin Oo Lwin.

Leaked documents, however, tell a different story. Letters from the junta’s Mandalay Region Settlement and Land Record Department leaked on Thursday instructed township offices in Pyin Oo Lwin and Patehigyi, which is adjacent Mandalay city, to develop plans to relocate their staff and remove important documents due to security concerns.

Regime troops have been deployed in residential wards of Pyin Oo Lwin and some have taken position at the University of Technology – also known as Yatanarpon Cyber City – on a main road linking Pyin Oo Lwin and Mandalay city, where the headquarters of the junta’s Central Command is based.

In early April, Mandalay PDF attacked the junta’s Defense Service Academy at Pyin Oo Lwin with 107mm rockets. The junta admitted that the resistance attack killed four people and wounded 12 more, including cadets at the academy.

Mandalay PDF and allied resistance groups recently launched attacks on regime targets in Patheingyi township in Mandalay city. The PDF groups and its allies have seized over 35 regime bases and outposts, including the headquarters of the junta’s Air Defense Battalion at Madaya township next to Mandalay city.

In July, the TNLA, Mandalay PDF and other allies took control of Singu town and the ruby town of Mogoke in northern Mandalay Region.

Irrawaddy News