Regime soldier shot dead in Buthidaung Twsp

By Admin 13 Nov 2023

DMG Newsroom 
13 November 2023, Buthidaung

More than 200 local residents reportedly fled in fear after a junta soldier was shot dead near a local bazaar in Nyaungchaung Village, part of Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township, on Monday morning.

The junta soldier has been identified as Tin Myat Tun aka Dar Htoe. He was shot dead after being abducted by a group of unidentified men, said a local man in Nyaungchaung Village, who did not want to be named for security reasons.

“He was reportedly abducted by a group of unknown men. I heard two gunshots. He was reportedly shot dead and his weapons were taken by unknown men,” the anonymous Nyaungchaung resident said.

The slain soldier was reported to be a regular presence at the Nyaungchaung bazaar who was known to move about the market fully armed. 

“Almost all residents have fled to nearby villages following the assassination and a few people remain in the village. We are fleeing to a safer location as we feel insecure in the village,” said a resident of Nyaungchaung Village.

Nyaungchaung Village is home to more than 300 people from 90 households, and a Border Guard Force (BGF) outpost is located in the village. Fleeing residents said their flight was out of fear that they might be caught up in clashes between the military and the Arakan Army (AA), on a day that hostilities flared anew between the two sides in multiple Arakan State townships.

“Fighting between the military and AA may resume in the area as there is a BGF outpost in the village. We fled to a safer location and will return home after monitoring the situation,” said a local woman from Nyaungchaung Village.

The AA attacked the Nyaungchaung BGF outpost in July 2019.

Fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army resumed in Arakan State after the AA took control of two BGF outposts near Rathedaung Township’s Cheinkharlein and Donpaik villages, and ambushed a junta convoy in neighbouring Minbya Township, on Monday morning.

The hostilities in Rathedaung and Minbya townships were anticipated by many amid speculation that a “western front” to the anti-junta armed resistance movement might open in Arakan State after the Three Brotherhood Alliance, of which the AA is a member, launched an offensive late last month in Shan State, with the stated aim of toppling Myanmar’s military regime.