Junta troops tortured a man and lopped off his head after raiding a village in northern Myanmar’s Sagaing region, locals told RFA.
They said the troops also set fire to 53 houses and a Buddhist hall in Ta Pa Yin Kwe village on Sunday morning.
The victim, Tun Tun Win, 44, was arrested when troops raided the village shortly after dawn, according to a resident who did not want to be named for security reasons.
“He was captured by an army column as he was returning to his tent in the east of the village,” said the local.
“He was interrogated and beaten. He didn’t know anything since he was a civilian. Since he did not respond, the troops killed him and beheaded him by a lake east of the town.”
The villager said that Tun Tun Win was a farmer who leaves behind a wife and three children.
It is the second time this year that troops have raided and burned houses in the town, killing locals.
In January, troops fired on the local Buddhist leader, the Venerable Gandhasara, two civilians and a local anti-junta fighter, setting fire to 90 houses, residents told RFA.
The junta intensified its slash-and-burn campaign in Sagaing township this month. Residents said a column of more than 100 soldiers has been storming and burning villages along the Mu River since April 20.
They said 449 houses in six villages were destroyed between April 21 and 24. Troops arrested five people in those raids, according to a local who also wished to remain anonymous.
The junta has not issued a statement on the raids and RFA calls to Sagaing region junta spokesperson Aye Hlaing went unanswered on Tuesday.
The head of the junta, Commanding General Min Aung Hlaing, and the junta’s Deputy Information Minister, Major General Zaw Min Tun, have repeatedly denied that their troops burned civilian buildings, claiming that all the arson attacks were carried out carried out by the anti-junta Popular Defense Forces.
Nearly 48,000 houses in the Sagaing region have been burned down since the February 2021 coup, according to independent research group Data for Myanmar.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.