The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) has reportedly continued to collect money from civilians to fund its armed group in Burma’s volatile northern Shan State.

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Soldiers stopped cars and trucks and left the motorcyclists alone near Jae Lant village on a roadway that connects to Hseng Khawng along the Burma-China border near a regime camp in Muse Township.

“Some of the TNLA soldiers were wearing their military uniforms and had all their equipment with them, while others were dressed in civilian clothes,” a man told SHAN on condition of anonymity.

In the last two and a half years, the TNLA has stepped up its taxation scheme in northern Shan State.

“After the military coup, ethnic armed organisations have become more active in northern Shan State. Among them, the TNLA is the most active. If we observe what it’s doing, I suspect its trying to establish a state for the Ta’ang,” says an anonymous political analyst from the Htong Mao area.

In March, 150 members of the Ta’ang Political Consultative Council, civil societies and politicians approved the third draft of the Ta’ang State Constitution.

The political wing of the TNLA, the Palaung State Liberation Front, met twice this year with the Chinese special envoy to Myanmar, Deng Xijuno.

The Ta’ang armed group is a member of the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee, but not a signatory to the failed Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement introduced in 2015.