A Hpakant man was instantly killed by regime shelling while his wife and the couple’s toddler were badly wounded by the explosion that happened after Kachin armed groups attacked the military in Lon Khin village tract, Kachin State.
“One of the child’s arms had to be amputated after shrapnel penetrated the bone and destroyed the tendons,” a man close to the family told KNG, wishing to remain anonymous. Two-and-a-half-year-old Maung Nyan Lin Aung still needs further treatment, but his condition isn’t critical.
The situation of Ma Khin Mwe Mwe, his mother, is more serious after shrapnel penetrated the twenty-three-year-old’s head. She keeps losing consciousness and has to be taken to Mandalay for surgery, the man explained. Ma Khin Mwe Mwe is currently staying at the hospital in Hpakant, where doctors say the operation will cost at least $5,000, but she doesn’t have the money.
The family lives in Nyein Chan Tha Yar, Section 4 of the village tract.
On Friday, the Kachin Independence Army and the People’s Defence Force killed at least three police and injured two others when they attacked a military checkpoint and a police vehicle near Myauk Kon (also called Tharthana) in Lon Khin village tract around 6pm on 18 March.
After the clash, the military shelled the area indiscriminately, with one shell hitting a house, injuring the family in Lon Khin village tract and three men on the street.
Junta soldiers also destroyed 30 houses in Myauk Kon and no one is allowed to pass through the checkpoint.
