Thejunta forces opened fire on a group of manual labourers in Oke Shit Pintownship of Pyay district and killed four individuals. Six of thelabourers, who hail from Taungup township working, also sustained injuries.
Thevictims have been identified as Ko Tun Lin Aung (36), Ko Lin Lin (25), Ko NgeChey (26) and Ko Thet Paing (32), who hailed from Tar Ye villageunder Thin Chi Kaing village-tract of Taungup locality.
Thearrested individuals hail from Myoe Haung village under the same township.
An escaped labourer informed Narinjara News that the incident took placeon 13 August as they encountered a junta column while transporting goodsfrom Yaung Gyi village under Oke Shit Pin township to Taungup locality.
"Sincethe junta forces had closed the roads, we carried food items from OkeShit Pin to Taungup to earn some money. It takes over 10 days to walk fromTaungup to that village. The goods were stored at Yaung Gyivillage. On that day, after loading the goods, 10 people were made into a groupand 4 people used to lead the team. Those 4 persons encountered about 50soldiers from Daw Tan village and faced the bullets. The followers werearrested," added the labourer.
The arrestedmen were forced to carry the dead bodies and later taken to the battalion basedin Oke Shit Pin.
"Wesaw they were beaten and later taken away. We were hiding and watched them froma distant location,” said an eyewitness from Myoe Haung village.
Afamily member of another survivor expressed grief over the incident as theywere working hard to transport goods facing difficult terrains for theirlivelihood.
Taungup-Pyayroad, the main route for transporting goods to Taungup, has been blocked at acheckpoint in Oke Shit Pin. Often the businessmen and civilians arecompelled to bring goods through the Arakan mountains for Taungupresidents.
Inthe junta column, there were militiamen armed with carbine guns and the juntasoldiers were equipped with MA-1 rifles.
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