Eight residents of Thayet Kone, a village located near the military’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 54 base in Bago region, were interrogated on Tuesday following an explosion at the base.
The explosion occurred at around 4pm on Tuesday, and three men in their fifties and five youths were taken into custody two hours later, according to local sources.
“At first they said they were only getting them as ‘guides’, and then they arrested them,” a resident of Thayet Kone told Myanmar Now.
“The other thing is the village has supported [anti-coup] protests. They wanted to know who was involved in the protests and who had stickers and signs. They also asked what we knew about the explosion,” the villager said.
“We’re all just farmers. We said we didn’t know anything. And then they tortured us,” he added.
The IB 54 base is located at the 39-mile mark on the Yangon-Mandalay highway, between the villages of Wingabaw and Bawnatgyi.
Thayet Kone, a predominantly ethnic Karen village, is the nearest civilian settlement.
The detained villagers were released at around 1am on Wednesday, but one of the older men had heavy bruises all over his face, local sources said.
It was unclear what caused the explosion on Tuesday, but it was believed to have been either a hand grenade or a non-lethal stun grenade. No casualties were reported.
A similar attack also took place at the base on March 18.
The majority of Thayet Kone inhabitants have actively participated in anti-dictatorship protests held in the towns of Bago and Phayargyi.
