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Myanmar’s military government on Thursday admitted attacking a religious festival held on the grounds of a school in central myanmarEyewitnesses said that about two dozen people, including children, were killed when improvised bombs were dropped by motorized paragliders.
A statement issued by the military’s information office blamed resistance forces opposing military rule for the casualties in Monday night’s attack, accusing them of “using civilians as human shields in anti-government incitement campaigns.” Neither the government nor its opponents reported any armed combat near the bombing site.
The attack took place in Myanmar’s Sagaing region and was previously reported by the country’s independent media and international outlets, including the Associated Press. A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared on Wednesday that “the indiscriminate use of aerial weapons is unacceptable.”
Witnesses told the AP that paragliders flew two sorties, each time dropping two bombs on the primary school complex in Bon To village in Chaung-U township, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. Based on evidence from similar previous attacks, the bombs were believed to be 120 mm mortar rounds that exploded on impact.
Initial reports of casualties varied slightly, but a member of a local resistance group who attended the event put the death toll at 24. Speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his personal safety, he also estimated that 50 people were injured.
Resistance fighters said those killed included children, villagers, members of local political activist groups and armed anti-military groups.
The attack occurred as more than 100 people were holding a traditional oil lamp prayer ceremony to mark the end of Buddhist Lent and were using the occasion to call for the release of political prisoners and to protest the military’s planned elections in December, which critics say will be neither free nor fair.
The Sagaing region has been a hotbed of armed resistance since the military seized power from the elected government Aung San Suu Kyi In February 2021. After peaceful protests were crushed with deadly force, many opponents of the military regime took up arms, and large parts of the country are now engulfed in civil war.
Most of the fighting against the military regime is carried out by locally formed armed resistance groups, which are linked to the nationwide People’s Defense Forces.
A statement released Thursday by the military’s information office accused the resistance group of coercing the public into Monday’s protests and using them as human shields and said “security forces chose to carry out the attack as a counter-terrorism operation with a plan for minimal civilian casualties.”
Resistance fighters and a local resident who attended Monday’s ceremony rejected the military’s allegations that civilians were forced to protest, saying people had attended the ceremony of their own free will. Pro-democracy street protests remain common on special occasions in areas outside military control, including central areas such as Mandalay, Sagaing and Magway, as well as Tanintharyi in the south.
The army said this in a separate statement Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamed Hassan met Myanmar’s military chief and acting president, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, on Thursday to discuss the upcoming elections, cooperation in humanitarian aid operations and peace efforts. Malaysia currently chairs the Association of Southeast Asian NationsWhich is trying without success to restore peace and stability in Myanmar.