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Outgunned resistance forces kill four police in Natmauk village

October 20, 2022/in News

More than 150 people were forcibly detained following the incident, which occurred after local defence team members encountered a group of police on patrol A group of nine local defence team members killed four police officers during a half-hour clash in Magway Region’s Natmauk Township on Sunday, according to resistance sources. The incident occurred at […]

Bomb blasts, gunfire at Myanmar’s biggest prison kills eight, including guards

October 19, 2022/in News

Prison staff and civilians are reportedly among those killed after shots are allegedly fired from a watchtower at Yangon’s Insein Prison following a parcel bomb attack At least eight people were killed and 15 injured after Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison was hit with two explosions and a shooting on Wednesday morning, according to sources at […]

Outgunned resistance forces kill four police in Natmauk village

October 20, 2022/in News

Bomb blasts, gunfire at Myanmar’s biggest prison kills eight, including guards

October 19, 2022/in News

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Outgunned resistance forces kill four police in Natmauk village

October 20, 2022/in News

More than 150 people were forcibly detained following the incident, which occurred after local defence team members encountered a group of police on patrol

A group of nine local defence team members killed four police officers during a half-hour clash in Magway Region’s Natmauk Township on Sunday, according to resistance sources.

The incident occurred at around 9pm in Hpat Taw Yae, a village about 25km east of the town of Natmauk, after the defence team members encountered eight officers on patrol.

The regime forces, who may have included some soldiers, were fully armed, while the defence team members only had a pistol, a rifle, and several swords between them, according to a member of one of the groups involved in the clash.

“The guys with the guns fired back at the police, and when more junta personnel arrived on motorcycles, we started attacking them with swords,” said Garuda Force officer Bo Aung Din.

Outgunned, the defence team members were forced to retreat, but not before seizing the weapons of two of the deceased officers.

“We only had 14 bullets, so we saved the last one to go back and grab as many guns as we could get. But we only managed to get two,” said Bo Aung Din.

He added that one member of his group was shot in the thigh and back while retrieving the guns, but was not seriously injured.

According to Htan Htut, the information officer for the Beikthano People’s Defence Force (PDF), which also took part in the confrontation, three of the officers were killed in the initial exchange of fire, while the fourth died while attempting to flee.

“Three of them died right away, and the other one was killed while trying to get to his motorcycle,” he said.
Natmauk_phattawyay_2_18.10.Jpeg

Guns seized from police officers killed by a local defence team in the village of Hpat Taw Yae on October 16 (Supplied)

Residents of Hpat Taw Yae told Myanmar Now that a column of around 60 junta soldiers arrived in the village about two hours after the clash and arrested more than 150 people.

While some 70 women were released the following day, all of the men who were detained remain in custody and have been subjected to beatings, the locals said.

They added that the regime forces had even arrested 14-year-old seventh graders and also set fire to five houses in the village.

Residents of several neighbouring villages, including Thapoot Pin, Kyauk Oh, and Kantha, have also reportedly been displaced since the arrival of the junta troops in Hpat Taw Yae.

Natmauk Township is located east of the Ayeyarwady River, in an area that is mostly flat, open land. Unlike the heavily wooded western side of the river, where most resistance groups in Magway Region are based, it offers few natural hiding places.

The town is also famous as the birthplace of independence hero Aung San, who is also the father of Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar Now News

Bomb blasts, gunfire at Myanmar’s biggest prison kills eight, including guards

October 19, 2022/in News

Prison staff and civilians are reportedly among those killed after shots are allegedly fired from a watchtower at Yangon’s Insein Prison following a parcel bomb attack

At least eight people were killed and 15 injured after Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison was hit with two explosions and a shooting on Wednesday morning, according to sources at the site.

At around 9:40am, two parcel bombs went off near the main entrance of the prison: one detonated in a building where staff receive care packages for prisoners and another one went off outside.

An eyewitness told Myanmar Now that a number of civilians were present when the explosions occurred, as they were at the prison to deliver food and other necessities to their incarcerated relatives.

Following the explosions, gunshots were fired from a prison watchtower—presumably by prison guards or junta troops—causing the people at the location to scatter.

Three of those killed in the attack were prison staff and five were civilians, said a source within the police force. At least 15 others were injured, the majority of whom were members of the public, he added.

The Insein Prison staff killed in the attack were identified as Kyaw Zin Oo, Khin Moe Wai and Poe Ei Zan.

Among the civilian casualties was the mother of incarcerated student activist Lin Htet Naing, commonly known as James, who was at the prison to deliver a care package for her son.

Further information about the remaining victims was not known at the time of the reporting.

Damage after the explosions at the Insein Prison on October 19 (Supplied)

The eyewitness claimed that the casualties were not caused by the bomb blasts but by the subsequent shooting from the watchtower.

“I am not sure if the shooters were soldiers or employees at the prison. They opened fire indiscriminately from a watchtower opposite the explosion site. There were around 10 rounds fired, and those hit people, too,” she told Myanmar Now.

She said that she saw five people fall and that they were carried away. Myanmar Now is unable to independently verify her account of the incident.

All court hearings inside the Insein Prison were subsequently cancelled for the day, according to the relative of a political prisoner who was at the location at the time of the attack.

No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, and Myanmar’s military council had not issued a statement on the incident at the time of reporting.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, in-person family visits with prisoners across the country have been suspended. The ban remains in place at the time of reporting, widely seen as a measure imposed by the military to cut off communications between Myanmar’s thousands of political prisoners and the outside world. Those detained on politically motivated charges have only been able to communicate with relatives through the lawyers representing them.

Junta authorities only allow prisoners access to weekly or fortnightly parcel deliveries from family members. This delivery of food and other basic supplies remains critical to the survival of those incarcerated under the military regime.

Myanmar Now News

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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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