Burma coup resistance notes October 18, 2022
Political prisoners and guards escape together; PDF roadside and drone bombs inflict heavy casualties in central Burma; Brutal junta raid on a religious school fails to catch protest leader.
Ethnic regions-------------------
Update on the Karen route of a junta platoon in Dooplaya District of Kawthoolei (Kyainseikgyi township on Burmese maps) 2 days ago: In addition to the 16 junta troops captured and 6 killed, there were 23 others in the platoon, who ran away. One of the dead was an officer in addition to the captured platoon commander, a major, and a captain. (Khit Thit Media)
Yesterday in Doo Tha Htoo District (Thaton township on Burmese maps) a local PDF attacked two junta bridge checkpoints on the Pa-an – Thaton road, killing 2 troops and wounding 3 including a chief, but 3 of the PDF fighters were also injured. In another incidient, a PDF opened fire on junta police guarding a road in Bilin yesterday, killing a deputy chief. The junta recently concentrated troops at the site of an attack at the Kyaiktiyo pagoda in northern Doo Tha Htoo, so the opposition forces are attacking at other, weaker points in that district.
In Dooplaya District of Kawthoolei (Kyainseikgyi township on Burmese maps), Karen forces drone-bombed a junta/BGF camp at Taungson where the latter had set up roadblocks and were extorting travelers; the drones killed 5 troops and wounded 4. (Mizzima)
In Karenni State, Karenni defense forces attacked a junta column going from Mawchisu toward Dawnye, killing 3 troops and wounding 5, while one Karenni soldier was also killed.
In Chin State, the junta admin offices in Hakha town were destroyed by fire last night. (Ayeyarwaddy Times)
Junta army desertions------------------
A junta soldier defected to Karen army Brigade 6 in Dooplaya District of Kawthoolei (Myawaddy township on Burmese maps) yesterday with full weapons. (Karen Information Center)
In Hkamti, northern Sagaing Region, 3 junta prison guards defected while helping 11 political prisoners to escape to a liberated area. This happened a week ago but is being announced now that they have reached safety. (The Irrawaddy)
Junta scorched earth village terrorism campaign---------------
Correction to yesterday’s story about the man’s head hung on the school gate by junta terrorists in Taungmyint, Magway Region: The victim was U Saw Moe Tun, a striking CDM school teacher, rather than a boarding house owner. They stuck the teacher’s severed head on a spike on the school’s front gate. (Khit Thit Media)
After a battle with a local PDF on Oct. 16, troops attacked Pettawye village in Natmauk township of Magway Region, burning the entire community and capturing and beating the civilians to the point where their lives are in danger. During the battle preceding the terror attack, 9 members of a local PDF killed 4 out of 8 junta troops traveling on motorcycles near the village and captured 2 weapons; surprisingly, they did this with only a pistol and a locally-made gun, 14 bullets, and some knives. (Mizzima)
People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)-----------------
In Sagaing Region, PDFs in Chaung Oo township set off 6 pairs of roadside bombs on a 10-vehicle convoy yesterday, killing around 20 troops and wounding others. These enormous bombs are manufactured by the Myaung Women Warrior PDF. (Khit Thit Media)
In Kawlin township a junta patrol stepped on PDF landmines, killing 2 of the troops. In response, the troops shot and killed a man in front of a cinema and shot and injured a woman, and also kidnapped 20 or more vendors from a nearby market, leaving behind all their merchandise.
In Htee Chaing township, a column of 40 junta troops that had gone to the river bank to protect a supply flotilla was attacked 4 times with roadside bombs yesterday; as many as 15 of them were killed. (Myaelatt Athan)
On the Monywa-Mandalay road in Myinmu township, a PDF attacked junta forces multiple times yesterday. First a drone bomb killed 4 troops near a fuel station; then a 9-vehicle convoy was blown up with roadside bombs, destroying a truck and killing 14 troops aboard; then another drone strike killed 2 troops posted near a hospital. In all, 7 strikes killed 24 troops. (Khit Thit Media, People's Spring)
In Mandalay Region, a PDF that has been regularly drone-bombing junta targets in Nwatogyi township dropped 3 bombs on troops occupying a school 2 days ago Oct. 16, killing 4 and wounding 5. A video shows the strikes and the troops.
Urban warfare------------------
Troops closed the Shwepyitha-Hlaingthaya bridge today after discovering a bomb there. It was diffused before it exploded.
In Mandalay, troops brutally raided and searched a Buddhist monastic school for the 3rd time yesterday, looking for a monk called U Zin who leads street protests against the junta. Eight truckloads of troops combed the monastery; not finding U Zin again, they beat 2 young monks and stabbed them with sticks; one of them is now hospitalized. The regime tries to paint itself as pro-Buddhist in order to divide the people against each other by religion, but its acts show that its brutality can be just as easily directed at Buddhists as at Muslims, Christians, etc.
Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)-------------------
Two plain-clothes junta police were arrested by a local PDF in Hpakant, Kachin State 2 days ago Oct. 16. Yesterday a junta administrator was assassinated at a restaurant in Wundwin township, Sagaing Region. Multiple other junta operatives have been assassinated or arrested around the country in the past week. These are people the dwindling regime can’t afford to lose. Now its ministry of the interior is imposing a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on all its staff for their own protection, and they are to refrain from any unnecessary movement outside of homes and offices. The insecurity caused by the coup is increasingly coming back to bite the junta itself, restricting its personnel at least as much as civilians.
Political prisoners are subject to worsening abuse. The junta mobilizes common criminals to beat the political detainees, and medical care is denied for injuries suffered during torture and also for illness, leading to the death of some citizens abducted for pro-democracy activities. The junta is also threatening more political murders such as the hanging of Ko Jimmy and three other activists in July. The junta is holding almost 13,000 such prisoners of conscience. (Khit Thit Media)
In the junta prison in Pakokku in Magway Region, prisoners are on hunger strike in reaction to the torture of 6 political prisoners. One of them has a smashed larynx and is in critical condition. (Myaelatt Athan)
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