Junta shelling injures two women in Paletwa

By Admin 19 Dec 2023

DMG Newsroom
19 December 2023, Paletwa, Chin State

Two women in Paletwa, Chin State, were reportedly injured in a junta artillery strike on Monday.

“Two women sustained minor injuries to their arms and legs,” said a resident of Paletwa. The two injured are said to range in age from 30 to 50 years old, and DMG efforts to ascertain the names and precise ages of the women are ongoing.

The military’s Light Infantry Battalion No. 289 fired mortar shells into Paletwa from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. without there being fighting in the area, injuring the two women and damaging some homes.

A 17-year-old woman was injured by shrapnel when a junta artillery shell hit the staff-quarters of a public hospital in Chin State’s Paletwa town on December 8.

Locals in Paletwa are worried about their safety as artillery shells fired by junta troops have landed and exploded in the town on multiple occasions.

“Previously, artillery shells fired by regime forces fell in Paletwa. The fact that people are affected by the junta shelling is becoming quite worrisome,” said a local resident in Paletwa.

Four residents were killed and 13 others were injured due to junta airstrikes after the Arakan Army (AA) occupied junta tactical command outposts in Paletwa Township’s Taron Eain and Ahtet Meezar villages. Fierce fighting between the military and AA has been intensifying in Paletwa Township since November 14. 

It has been about one month since the regime blockaded roads and waterways in Paletwa Township, where locals are facing food shortages and increasingly steep price hikes.