After word got out that the Burma Army (BA) will arrest everyone who was at a concert that the junta bombed in Hpakant Township, families and friends of those who were killed by the shelling are afraid to hold prayer ceremonies for them.
According to a local female source, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, the army has blocked the road to Ginsi village and prevented people from carrying the dead and injured to the town since three regime jet fighters bombed a concert about two miles away celebrating the 62nd anniversary of the Kachin Independence Army (KIO) on 23 October.
She told KNG that soldiers and police are searching for people who helped the victims in KIO’s military wing, Kachin Independence Army Brigade 9’s area, to arrest them and charge them with them with Article 17/1 for belonging to unlawful associations.
“It’s really difficult to live in Hpakant,” she told KNG.
After the BA prevented ambulances from taking those wounded in the bombings to hospitals in the towns of Hpakant and Myitkyina, and some of the victims bled to death, soldiers also tried to prevent doctors and paramedics from travelling to A Nang Pa, where the tragedy happened. However, some managed to sneak past the army’s checkpoints and give them medical care.
Local residents have told KNG that military forces were seen searching for the bomb victims at the hospital and clinics in Hpakant town.
Of the 78 people killed in the airstrikes, 60 people were buried next to the village of Baw Ser Dee near Ginsi on October 25-26. During the bombardment, about 50 people died instantly and the rest died after being unable to get medical care.
