More than 100 people, including many children, are feared dead in Tuesday’s airstrikes by Myanmar’s military. They had attended a program organized by opponents of the military regime. This information was received through a member of a pro-democracy group and independent media. The army overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. Since then, the military has carried out frequent airstrikes to quell protests against his rule.
More than 3,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed by security forces since the coup. A witness told The Associated Press that a fighter jet bombed a crowd of people gathered at 8 a.m. for the opening of a local office of the country’s opposition group outside Pajigi village in Kanabalu township of Sagaing region. The region is about 110 kilometers north of Mandalay, the country’s second largest city.
The eyewitness said that about half an hour later, shots were fired from a helicopter. According to independent media reports, 50 people were initially estimated to have been killed, but this number has now been around 100. The incident could not be independently verified due to restrictions imposed by the military government. There is no news of the attack in the official media. The eyewitness said, “I was at some distance from the crowd when one of my friends told on the phone that a fighter plane was hovering. Later this aircraft dropped bombs on the crowd. The friend told that on seeing the plane, he jumped into a nearby ditch and hid there.
The eyewitness said, “The office of the group was destroyed in the shelling. Around 30 people were injured in the incident. The helicopter was fired upon while evacuating the injured,” he said. Around 150 people had gathered for the inauguration ceremony and the dead included women and 20-30 children, he said. He also said that leaders of anti-government armed groups and other opposition organizations were among those killed. “This heinous act by the terrorist army is yet another example of their indiscriminate use of force against innocent civilians,” the opposition group National Unity Government (NUG) said in a statement.
The group’s office being opened on Tuesday was part of its administrative network.
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