A military-backed armed group allegedly used children to lure and capture more than 50 members of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) in Sagaing Region’s Mingin Township on Wednesday, according to a member of the local resistance who escaped.
Prior to the set-up, the Mingin PDF had been engaged in a clash with a local Pyu Saw Htee group—a nationwide pro-military network formed to counter the anti-coup resistance. The battle was one of the first reported between the PDF and the Pyu Saw Htee.
The fighting took place at 5am near Taung Phyu village east of the Chindwin River, where the Pyu Saw Htee had been stationed. The Pyu Saw Htee reportedly fired heavy weaponry including an RPG, which injured three local resistance fighters, a PDF member said.
After exchanging gunfire for 30 minutes, the PDF troops were reportedly approached by a group of adults who appeared to be civilians, following children carrying white flags. They invited them to enter the village—unarmed—for negotiations to end the clash, according to the PDF member.
He recounted the incident to Myanmar Now, saying that he was one of 18 fighters who opted not to follow the children. They were in the minority: some 57 PDF troops laid down their arms and walked into Taung Phyu expecting to engage in dialogue.
“We felt like they were luring us in. If they were real civilians, they’d have taken cover first to avoid getting shot, and then they would have come to us,” the escaped PDF member said.
He noted that after the 57 PDF members entered the village, there was no ceasefire or pause for talks; instead, the fighting continued as the remaining PDF members attempted to flee.
“Three of us were carrying the injured while five of us covered for them so that we could flee to the other side of the river on a boat. We only were able to escape because we managed to meet up with our group,” the escaped PDF member said.
Photos have circulated on social media showing some of the 57 captured PDF members with their hands tied behind their backs to a bamboo pole. Since not all of those who were taken were pictured, the other PDF members are concerned that some of their comrades have already been killed.
“I heard they took five members of the PDF leadership by helicopter to the northwestern regional military headquarters in Monywa,” a management officer of Mingin PDF said.
Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify where the PDF members had been taken.
Among the captured PDF members was a 20-year-old second year university student from the University of Computer Studies, Monywa, his mother told Myanmar Now.
“It’s unjust. [The military] are the ones with weapons, so they are persecuting my son. I heard that my son didn’t even have any weapons on him when he was taken,” she said.
The junta’s information department announced on Friday in military-run news outlets that “locals” in Taung Phyu had captured 53 “insurgents” alive in possession of 50 hunting rifles, and three dead bodies.
A Mingin PDF leader said that the military “took advantage” of their desire to protect civilians and used it against them in order to trick and capture their members.
“That’s actually our weak point,” he said. “We have strict policies not to harm civilians as our very purpose is to protect civilians. They knew we were working with compassion and ethics and they took advantage of that.”
The Mingin PDF management officer said that before their members were captured, they had been prepared to attack the Pyu Saw Htee stronghold in Panset village near Taung Phyu on Wednesday morning.
In Panset, hundreds of pro-military fighters accompanied by several junta troops had already set up a makeshift base with bunkers and sandbag fortifications, so the PDF was dependent on reinforcement troops in order to ambush them. The group of PDF members captured in Taung Phyu were among those reinforcements.
“They only have one group, so we decided to surround them in the places they were stationed. We were going to send all of our groups to Panset village. We were forced to withdraw as one of our groups was captured,” the Mingin PDF management officer said.
The junta soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee members were allegedly providing military training and weapons in Panset with the support of a Union Solidarity and Development Party representative, according to local sources.
Myanmar Now was unable to confirm this at the time of reporting.
Around 15 villages near Panset along the Chindwin River in Mingin have recently been terrorised by the military and the Pyu Saw Htee, with reports that they have shot at civilians and forced villagers to flee their homes.
