Myanmar junta troops murder disabled villagers in Chin State | Myanmar NOW (myanmar-now.org)
A deaf woman and a paralysed man were murdered by regime forces in northern Chin State’s Falam Township late last week, according to local sources.
The victims were both killed by a military column of around 250 soldiers that left Kalay in Sagaing Region last Wednesday and arrived in Falam the following day, residents said.
When the junta troops entered Valung, a village some 60km northeast of the town of Falam, on Thursday, it was deserted except for a 60-year-old woman who had been unable to flee.
Days later, residents returned to find that she had been shot in the head.
“The people living there left her behind thinking the military wouldn’t sink so low as to shoot a deaf woman,” said a spokesperson for the anti-junta Chin National Defence Force (CNDF), which recovered the woman’s body on Sunday.
After leaving Valung on Saturday, the junta troops discovered and killed another disabled resident in the nearby village of Hlanzawl, according to the CNDF spokesperson.
“He was paralysed. They tied him up and dragged him along the ground before shooting him,” he said, citing village residents.
The man’s body was also recovered on Sunday and cremated the following day, he added.
According to the CNDF, thousands of local people have fled the area since last week due to the heavy military presence. It also said that the junta troops that arrived last week have been building bunkers in an area about 5km from Hlanzawl.
In a statement released on June 27, the Chin National Organisation, the political wing of CNDF, warned locals to avoid using the Kalay-Falam road.
“We would like to request the public to avoid travel and to stay in safe places, as the military has been arresting and killing people at will,” said the CNDF spokesperson.
There have also been reports that the military has been sending reinforcements to southern Chin State.
Sources in Mindat said that two people had been killed and several others injured by aerial bombing by regime forces on Saturday.