Dozens of members of Myanmar’s security forces have surrendered or been captured, a rebel group said yesterday, as a coordinated offensive by insurgent groups battling the junta gathers pace in several parts of the country.
At least 28 policemen gave up their weapons and surrendered to the Arakan Army (AA), while 10 soldiers were arrested, said the group, which is fighting for autonomy in Rakhine State in western Myanmar.
Reuters could not independently verify the information from the AA, which is one of three ethnic minority insurgent groups that launched a coordinated offensive against junta forces late last month.
Photo: Reuters
A curfew has been imposed in Rakhine State’s capital, Sittwe, where military tanks have been sighted, the administration there said.
The rebels have captured some towns and military posts, including on the border with China, presenting the junta with its biggest test since the military took power in a 2021 coup, ousting an elected government led by then-Burmese state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.
A junta spokesperson, Zaw Min Tun, on Tuesday accused the rebel groups of “destroying the whole country,” and said reports of captured military posts were “propaganda.”
“The enemies retreated after they lost soldiers. We are trying to combine small posts strategically,” he said.
The spokesperson said fighting was going on in Shan, Rakhine and Kayah states. He did not comment on reports of junta forces surrendering.
Fighting has also been reported in Chin State in the northwest, where 43 Burmese soldiers crossed into the Indian state of Mizoram after a rebel attack, a police official in Mizoram said.
Most of the Burmese soldiers were flown by Indian forces to another point on the border and handed back to Burmese authorities, said an Indian security official who declined to be identified.
Fighters from the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) on Tuesday said they had surrounded a town controlled by pro-military militia near the China border where hundreds of foreigners are feared to be held working in online scam compounds.
The MNDAA said its fighters had surrounded the town of Laukkai in Shan State, about 3km from the China border.
“We have surrounded Laukkai and soon will retake it,” the MNDAA said in a statement, without indicating when it would try to do so.
MNDAA spokesman Li Jiawen separately said that no date had yet been set, as they wanted to ensure the safety of civilians in the town.
Run since by a pro-military militia, analysts say it is home to online scam centers where trafficked citizens of China and other countries are forced to work scamming their compatriots online. The scammers typically target their compatriots and groom them for weeks before cajoling them into plowing money into fake investment platforms and other ruses.
Thailand this month said that more than 160 of its citizens had been rescued from scam centers, but were stranded in Laukkai as fighting rages.
The UN Human Rights Office this year said that at least 120,000 people could be being held in scam compounds in Shan State and elsewhere in Myanmar.
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