Regime soldiers forced forty civilians to walk in front of them as they travelled though Hpakant Township on Wednesday.
A man who requested anonymity said the column of 200 soldiers abducted them in Nam Yar, Yay Katar and Khin Tawng villages and used them as human shields to prevent ambushes from resistance forces as they were heading to Kamaing town in the morning.
“Some Nam Yar residents managed to escape from the village before the column arrived. A few people were still there. Soldiers picked up others on the road and on their way to the market early in the morning,” including villagers from Yay Katar.
Soldiers arrived in Kamaing at 3pm on Thursday, but the abductees, including women and children, have not yet been freed.
“As far as we know, the column has been transferred somewhere else,” said a resistance fighter who also requested anonymity. The junta often forces civilians to walk in front of its troops, he said, in the township where it is fighting with the People’s Defence Force-Kachin Region and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
Last Sunday, an intense battle broke out between the KIA and the Burma army when the latter’s column entered the area of Battalion 44 of the Kachin armed group. The KIA managed to stop the regime’s troops after killing many of their soldiers.
The regime had used over 30 people from Malang Yang and Dum Bang villages near Kamaing as human shields on 2 May and some from Malang Yang on 4 May.
