At least 100 protesters detained and one shot in North Okkalapa, one week after a deadly crackdown

Police and soldiers arrested between 100 and 200 people and shot at least one during another vicious attack on peaceful protesters in North Okkalapa on Wednesday morning. 

The attack came a week after the coup regime’s forces murdered at least 1o in the Yangon township and badly injured dozens of others, according to local aid group estimates. 

The demonstrators were gathered near the Kantharyar park at around 10am when the security forces attempted to surround them while firing rubber bullets and tear gas.  

A young female protester suffered severe injuries to the bladder after being shot with live ammunition during the attack; she is receiving treatment and is in a serious but stable condition, according to a fellow protester who witnessed the incident, which was also captured in videos shared on Facebook. 

The protesters fled into the park and to the nearby Sein Gay Har shopping mall to hide. But they were chased and caught, said a woman who later joined a crowd facing off with security forces to demand the release of the protesters. 

“They made the kids kneel down and slapped them,” she told Myanmar Now.

The detained protesters were lined up in rows inside the park, footage shows. They were later taken away in prison trucks to a barracks in Shwepyitha township, witnesses said. 

Soldiers and police also raided homes on a street next to the park to arrest protesters who were hiding there, as well as homeowners who sheltered them. They beat the protesters after detaining them, a resident said.

In some cases, local informers seeking favour with the authorities betrayed the location of hiding protesters to security forces, according to residents who assisted the protesters.    

“So many people got arrested, even inside homes, because of the snitches,” said the woman who joined the crowd calling for the release of the protesters.

About 150 soldiers and police were involved in the crackdown in the morning, then another 100 showed up as reinforcements later, local residents said.

As the protesters were put into trucks, a group of supporters showed up to demand their release, raising their hands and even kneeling to show they were unarmed and peaceful, a video posted to social media showed.

“They took so many,” said a man who filmed the scene, referring to the detained. “Our comrades, brothers and sisters, please think about how much danger they are in now.”

Soldiers and police attacked that group with tear gas, stun grenades, and smoke bombs, a livestream of the crackdown showed.

Tensions remained high until around 2pm, when the junta’s forces threw more tear gas into the crowd before taking away the protesters. 

Later, a group of protesters showed up outside a military intelligence interrogation center near the Aung Mingalar bus station to demand the protesters’ release, according to local residents. Soldiers fired guns to disperse the crowd, but no injuries were reported.