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MAGWAY DIVISION-In Gangaw Township, according to local residents, some Lonhall villagers were taken hostage by the military junta council troops at around 6:30 a.m. on August 26.
The military junta council troops of the 50th Light Infantry Battalion of military junta based in Gangaw camped overnight in the Wigarna forest which is north of Lonhall village with a strength of nearly 80 and next morning, they entered Lonhall Village without firing a weapon. A Gangaw resident said that at least 10 local residents from the village were held as hostages.
“There was a funeral in the village this morning. When they came in, some of them must have been abducted before they had time to run. Those abducted are youth of 20s and over 30s. We still don’t know exactly who they are because the military junta soldiers are still in the village,” said a local.
He also said that they do not yet know how many men and women were abducted as hostages.
At present, the residents of Lonhall village are fleeing in the nearby forests. On May 23, the military junta troops burned down 2 houses in Lonhall village.
In Gangaw Township, when the military junta troops raid the villages, they abduct and kill the locals for various reasons, and some of them contact their family members and ask them to ransom them with money.
On August 20, they contacted the family members of an abducted Chin man from Shonshee Village, and force them to ransom with more than one million Myanmar Kyats.