Resistance forces who raided a police station in Magway Region’s Myaing Township on Friday said that police left 13 family members behind as they fled the scene after a 45-minute shootout.
According to an officer from the Myaing People’s Defence Force (PDF) who called himself Cross, the relatives of the fleeing police officers were later released.
“We told them not to support the junta and let them go. We didn’t lay a finger on them,” he said, adding that the family members included children and elderly adults.
The attack on the Lin Ka Daw police station, located at a strategic crossroads linking Myaing and Yesagyo townships in Magway to Pale and Salingyi townships in Sagaing, was carried out by an alliance of PDF groups from Myaing, Yesagyo and Salingyi, the Myaing PDF said in a statement released on Friday.
After gaining control of the police station, the resistance forces collected any weapons they could find there and then set it on fire, the statement added.
According to Cross, there were around 20 police officers and soldiers inside the police station at the time of the attack.
“We took them by surprise. We didn’t use explosive devices because we didn’t want to harm the civilians,” he said.
Wai Gyi, the leader of Yesagyo PDF, said the junta forces fired at them with grenades and light weapons but fled after 45 minutes.
“The police station is located at the junction of Yesagyo, Myaing of Salingyi townships, so it is of great strategic importance. Therefore, we formed an alliance between PDF groups from the three most geographically relevant townships,” he said.
The military immediately responded by sending reinforcements to Lin Ka Taw by helicopter. Some 30 soldiers arrived about 15 minutes after the resistance forces took control of the police station, taking six civilians captive as they marched towards the village, said Cross.
After occupying a three-storey building, the soldiers released the civilians, he added. Most residents of the village and the surrounding area have since fled.
Meanwhile, another 100 soldiers have been sent from Ba Hin, a village in western Myaing Township, to the northern part of the township to carry out an offensive there, according to Cross.
The military has been raiding villages and torching houses in Myaing Township since early this month. On January 14, junta troops took control of Lin Ka Taw and remained there for two nights.
In southern Myaing Township, regime forces have been targeting the owners of small-scale oil wells, demanding from 120,000 to 500,000 kyat ($68-280) in “taxes” and burning the wells of those who refuse to pay.
During a raid on the village of Kyauk Taing Kin on January 23, soldiers reportedly killed three villagers and burned their bodies. Four days later, two more civilians met the same fate between the villages of Thayetkan and Kyat Su Ain, a Myaing PDF officer said.
