The military council arrested the three sons of a trishaw driver in Ayeyarwady Region’s Ingapu Township on Monday after being unable to locate their father, according to local sources.
Troops took the boys—aged 17, 13 and 11—from their home in Ingapu’s third ward to the police station where they were detained. Local sources said that they were not aware of whether an arrest warrant had been issued for the boys’ father, 50-year-old Shwe Win.
The 13-year-old was released the following day, but the other two boys were still in junta custody at the time of reporting.
Locals told Myanmar Now they were unaware Shwe Win was wanted by the coup regime.
“We don’t know where exactly he is right now. The boys’ mother is still at home. She’s just sitting there crying because she doesn’t know what to do,” a resident of Ward 3 said.
The resident said that Shwe Win’s working class family once had a banner for the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) up at their house and had attended rallies for the party.
“You could say that they were avid supporters of the party. They’re not very educated, nor do they have much money,” the resident told Myanmar Now.
Another local said that the situation in Ingapu had grown more tense since the township’s People’s Defence Force posted on Facebook on August 22 that police officers were urged to surrender their weapons and join the resistance movement against the junta.
“[Police and military troops] started interrogating the people in town. They’d stop vehicles to inspect them. Some started charging people fines,” the second local said. “Informants would send the authorities to do guest list checks at households which tended to be hostile to them. They started shooting in some rural areas as well, but they haven’t started shooting in the city.”
Myanmar Now tried to call the Ingapu police station for comment regarding the search for Shwe Win and the continued detention of his sons, but the calls went unanswered.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), as of September 1 the military has detained at least 6,107 civilians in the seven months since the coup. Some 135 minors have also been arrested during this period, including two who have been formally sentenced, AAPP said.
