Junta troops opened fire on street vendors in Sagaing region’s Wetlet township, killing seven and critically injuring another six, locals told RFA Friday.
An army convoy opened fire on market stallholders as they headed to Shwe Pan Kone village around dawn Thursday according to a resident who didn’t want to be named for security reasons.
“They are ordinary civilian vendors who come to Shwe Pan Kone village,” said the local.
“They came by cars and motorbikes which were fired on by a junta column … between Shwe Pan Kone and Tha Ma Yoe villages. They were brutally murdered.”
The local said he didn’t know why the column opened fire on civilians.
Residents identified the dead – four women and three men – as 57-year-old Hnin Hlaing; 46-year-old Pwe Li; 40-year-old Aye Nu Win, 30-year-old Phyu Phyu San; 62-year-old Thein Hlaing; 55-year-old Poe Lwin; and 27-year-old Lwin Moe.
The six critically injured included a 29-year-old pregnant woman and a 65-year-old man.
The daughter of Hnin Hlaing, told RFA she was shocked by the attack.
“My mother sold vegetables, Losing my mother is a great loss,” she said.
“An innocent civilian was shot, not just one gunshot, she was hit by many bullets.”
The dead were cremated on Thursday, locals told RFA.
They said the injured are being treated at the clinics set up by the shadow National Unity Government, which has given the equivalent of U.S.$50 to families of the dead and $25 to the injured.
Residents said the army column continued onto Tha Ma Yoe village, capturing around 30 locals, who had not been heard from as of Friday afternoon.
Tha Ma Yoe was also raided by the junta in March this year, with troops torching many of the houses there.
The junta has not issued a statement on the latest attack and RFA’s calls to its Sagaing region spokesperson, Saw Naing, went unanswered Friday.
At least 3,750 pro-democracy activists and civilians have been killed since the February 2021 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.
