Villagers in southern Myanmar recovered the bodies of four civilians, days after junta soldiers arrested them in a raid, an anti-military group told Radio Free Asia on Friday.
Residents said troops took eight people into custody after storming Khaung Pyan village in the southernmost Tanintharyi region on Monday, but only the bodies of four men had been found.
Three women and a man were still missing, according to the Democracy Movement Strike Committee Dawei District, a group opposed to the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup.
The four bodies were found beside a nearby creek, with their hands tied behind their backs and “many stab wounds,” an official from the group said.
“Villagers were arrested when a junta column raided Khaung Pyan. They were arrested on July 1 and villagers found four dead bodies on July 3 and 4,” he said, declining to be identified for fear of reprisals.
Residents identified the four dead men as Kyaw Sein, Aung Zaw Win, Thar Thar and Naing Naing, who were aged between 40 and 60 and all from Khaung Pyan village in Yebyu Township.
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Tanintharyi region’s junta spokesperson, Thet Naing, did not respond to a request from RFA for comment on the deaths.
Junta troops have occupied Dawei Special Economic Zone in Tanintharyi’s capital since Monday, causing residents in neighboring Yebyu township to flee.
Fighting in Tanintharyi increased when the Karen National Liberation Army, an ethnic minority insurgent group battling for self-determination captured several junta bases in the region in April.
In the more than three years since the coup, more than 5,300 civilians have been killed by the junta, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.
