Man found dead in Sagaing after junta forces snatch him from his village
The body of Aung Naing Oo seen on October 31 (Supplied)
Soldiers, police and supporters were reportedly hunting for PDF fighters during the raid last week
By Myanmar Now
Villagers in Sagaing Region found the body of one of their neighbours on Sunday after he was taken by junta forces during a raid two days earlier.
Some 30 plainclothes soldiers, police and members of the pro-military Pyu Saw Htee group stole motorcycles from market vendors and rode them to Yaukthwar Aing village in Khin-U Township for the raid.
Most of the residents who did not support the military fled, but Aung Naing Oo, 21, was caught because he was sleeping when the raid started. He was later found on the side of a road just outside the village with two bullet wounds in his chest.
His funeral was held in the village cemetery the same day.
“He was trapped inside the village and was taken by the military,” a spokesperson for the Khin-U People’s Defence Force (PDF) said on Sunday. “We only found his body this morning because no one dared to go back into the village last night.”
Yaukthwar Aing, which has some 300 households, was targeted because the military was hoping to find PDF members there, the spokesperson added. Aung Naing Oo took part in anti-dictatorship protests but was not a PDF member, according to one villager.
“He was just a regular civilian,” the villager said.
The junta forces also ransacked four houses during the raid, the PDF spokesperson said. The following day junta forces ransacked 50 houses in the nearby village of Magyioak, and then on Sunday they burned down two houses in the village of Inpat, he added.
Myanmar military soldiers have raided numerous villages across Sagaing in recent weeks in a bid to gain control over a region that has put up some of the fiercest armed resistance to the coup regime.
On October 1, five locals including a six-year-old girl were killed during a military raid on Pyin Htaung village, which is also in Khin-U.
At least 14 people in Khin-U Township were killed by junta forces in October.
Original Post: Myanmar Now
