Junta shelling blamed for injuring three people in Pauktaw Twsp

By Admin 26 Apr 2024

DMG Newsroom
26 April 2024, Pauktaw

Three civilians including two minors were injured on Thursday when artillery shells fired by a Myanmar Navy ship landed and exploded in Taung Oo Maw and Anaukye villages in Arakan State’s Pauktaw Township.

The three injured have been identified as a 16-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy from Taung Oo Maw Village, and a 40-year-old Muslim man from Anaukye Village.

The three were injured after mortar shells fired by a junta navy vessel in the Kaladan River east of Sittwe Township fell and exploded in the respective villages on April 25.

“Two teenagers were wounded by the junta shelling. The two sustained injuries, but their conditions are considered not life-threatening,” said a resident of Taung Oo Maw Village.

Civilian casualties have been reported in Pauktaw Township due to Sittwe-based junta troops’ indiscriminate firings since the Arakkha Army’s seizure of Pauktaw town on January 24.

Four women including an expectant mother were killed by an artillery strike from the military’s Pardaleik Village-based Light Infantry Battalion No. 344 on March 17.

“The junta forces in Sittwe often fire mortar shells into Pauktaw Township. Locals in villages along the Kaladan River dare not return home due to the junta’s indiscriminate firings,” said a local in Pauktaw Township.

Fighting has been raging in Arakan State for more than five months, with the AA seizing large swaths of Rathedaung, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, Pauktaw, Myebon and Ramree townships, as well as Paletwa Township in neighbouring Chin State.

Civilian casualties are on the rise as the regime increasingly fires heavy weapons and carries out airstrikes on towns held by the AA.