‘We found 27 skulls’: bodies burnt, including women and children, in Myanmar’s Kayah state
- ‘People’s Defence Forces’ (PDF) have sprung up across the country to fight the junta, resulting in clashes and reprisals
- A member of a local PDF group said its fighters had found burnt-out vehicles with the dead bodies inside
The charred remains of more than 30 people, including women and children, were found in burnt-out vehicles in Myanmar on Saturday, a rebel group and a monitor said, accusing the junta of the attack.
Myanmar has been in chaos since the February coup, with more than 1,300 people killed in a crackdown by security forces, according to a local monitoring group.
“People’s Defence Forces” (PDF) have sprung up across the country to fight the junta, and have drawn the military into a bloody stalemate of clashes and reprisals.
On Saturday, photos appeared on social media purporting to show two burnt-out trucks and a car on a highway in Hpruso township in eastern Kayah state, with the charred remains of bodies inside.
A member of a local PDF group said its fighters had found the vehicles Saturday morning after hearing the military had stopped several vehicles in Hpruso after clashes with its fighters nearby on Friday.
“When we went to check in the area this morning, we found dead bodies burnt in two trucks. We found 27 dead bodies,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“We found 27 skulls,” said another witness who did not want to be named. “But there were other dead bodies on the truck, which had been burned to pieces so we could not count them.”