Junta airstrikes on Chin State village kill three, injure seven others

By Admin 17 Apr 2023

DMG Newsroom
17 April 2023, Mindat, Chin State

At least three people, including a 4-year-old child, were killed and seven others were wounded after the junta launched an airstrike on Pangpah Village, part of Chin State’s Mindat Township, on Sunday evening, according to locals.

“A junta jet fighter dropped bombs on the village without there being any fighting. A child and an elderly woman died first and a young woman bled to death while being treated. Some injured are said to be in critical conditions,” said a local resident.

A 4-year-old child, a 70-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl were pronounced dead in the junta airstrike.

Two men in their 70s and five women ranging in age from 17 to 50 were injured, with the injured being treated at clinics run by the Chin Defence Force (CDF-Mindat).

A junta jet fighter dropped bombs near Pangpah Village, according to CDF-Mindat’s information team.

In addition to the airstrikes, the military’s Mindat-based Light Infantry Battalion No. 274 fired mortar shells into the village, destroying a school and 10 homes, according to a source on the ground.

“A school and some homes were burned to the ground by the junta shelling. The villagers have fled to safer locations as they dare not stay in the village,” said a resident of Pangpah Village.

More than 200 residents of Pangpah Village were reportedly forced to flee the junta shelling.

“We dare not stay in the village. We heard the sounds of mortar shelling into the village in the morning. The villagers fled to the forests,” said a displaced resident.

DMG was unable to obtain comment from regime spokesman Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun regarding the junta airstrikes and shelling into Pangpah Village.