Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The ruling military junta killed at least 50 pro-democracy activists in Central Myanmar, the media reported on Tuesday.
The military launched an air strike on a rebels’ gathering, killing at least 50 people, who had gathered at an event attended by opponents of the junta, according to media and members of a local resistance movement.
Citing residents in the Sagaing region, BBC Burmese, Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Irrawaddy news portal reported that between 50 and 100 people, including civilians, had died in the attack.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since a February 2021 coup against the democratically-elected government of Aung San Su Kyi, with attacks by ethnic minority armies and resistance fighters challenging the rule of the military, which has responded with air strikes and heavy weapons, including in civilian areas.
A member of the local People’s Defence Force (PDF), an anti-junta militia, told the media that fighter jets fired on a ceremony held to open their local office.
“So far, the exact number of casualties is still unknown. We cannot retrieve all the bodies yet,” said the PDF member, who declined to be identified.
At least 1.2 million people have been displaced by post-coup fighting, according to the United Nations.
Tuesday’s incident could be one of the deadliest among a string of air strikes since a jet attacked a concert in October 2022, killing at least 50 civilians, local singers, and members of an armed ethnic minority group in Kachin State.
Myanmar’s pro-democracy government-in-exile, the National Unity Government, condemned the attack, calling it “yet another example of (the military’s) indiscriminate use of extreme force against civilians.”
In March, at least eight civilians, including children, were killed in an air strike on a village in northwest Myanmar, according to a human rights group, ethnic minority rebels, and media.
The military has denied international allegations of committing atrocities against civilians and claimed it is fighting “terrorists” determined to destabilize the country.
Western countries have imposed sanctions on the junta and its vast business network to try to choke off its revenue and access to arms from key suppliers like Russia and China.