SAGAING DIVISION – It was reportedly known from local residents that junta troops and militia Pyu Saw Htee torched Htantapin Village of Tamu Township located on upper part of Sagaing Division on December 3 at about 9 a.m. without having any battle.
“They (junta thugs) yelled loudly before torching the village and the gunshots. They also said that the whole village was surrounded,” said a woman who did not want to be named for security reasons.
Htantapin Village is a big village with around 500 households. Terrorist junta troops mainly set fire on residential houses, thus more than 100 houses were burned down, the locals said.
“They torched three houses on the road side first. Then they burned the houses inside the village. They destroyed our houses since they have manpower and arms,” said the local woman.
Htantapin Village is only ten miles away from Tamu, and the residents of Tamu were often fired with heavy weapons from junta council’s Tamu four-mile checkpoint, so villagers had to flee to the forest for safety.
“We didn’t die as we fled very fast. We couldn’t bring along anything with us. All the harvested rice were lost. Now we have nothing left to eat or wear. All the people had to flee into the forest. Even our houses were gone now,” a local man said.
