The regime’s armed forces set fire to two houses and abducted two youths in a village in Ywa Ngan Township during Thingyan, the Burmese New Year.

A youth, who wishes to remain anonymous, told SHAN, that the soldiers arrived in Lwa Sin at 1am in three military trucks and set fire to the houses along with everything inside. He said that one of the abducted youths is only sixteen years old. The Burmese military has abducted a total of six youths from the village in southern Shan State in recent days.

Another anonymous source said the army burned down the house of a teacher in Nwar Bang Gyi who’d joined the protest movement against the dictatorship. “They came to arrest the teacher who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement, but she and her husband Aye Shwe had already left, so they burnt down their house where they haven’t lived for over five months.

According to locals, the soldiers first made sure there were no travellers near the road before dousing the house with petroleum and setting it on fire.

The BA attacked the houses and abducted the youths after the People’s Defence Force ambushed them in the township.

In Nwar Bangyi, they abducted a toddler and eight other people, two people in Lae Kai and two youths from Lwa Sin village between 9 and 10 April. The soldiers also broke into people’s houses and stole things.

According to an anonymous source close to the civil resistance group, the PDF attacked the regime soldiers between Lwa Sin and Taung Pokwe at 4pm on 9 March and retreated without suffering any casualties.