NAYPYITAW, 03 August 2021, (TON): A dozen bodies were discovered near a village in Sagaing Region’s Kani Township, offering further evidence of atrocity killings by regime forces operating in the area.

Local sources said “the 12 bodies, including one of a 14-year-old boy, were found in a wooded area near the village of Taung Pauk on the afternoon of July 30.”

Days earlier, military forces entered Taung Pauk and other nearby villages and began arresting male residents suspected of involvement in the anti-coup resistance movement.

A search party was later formed to locate the detained villagers, all of whom appear to have been tortured and murdered on the day of their arrest.

A local activist who spoke to members of the search party, said “the bodies were very badly bruised. They had also started to decompose, to the point that you couldn’t pick them up. They were killed on the 26th or 27th, so that was understandable.”

He added “some of the bodies had been kept under a burned hut and were covered by a sheet, he added.”

All 12 of the victims have been identified as villagers who were in the custody of the military at the time of their death.