The junta detained 60 people, including children of primary school age, in Mindat Township, Chin State between 11 and 26 September according to the Chinland Defence Force.

Zalat Thway from Chinland Defence Force - Mindat said: “The military council in Mindat Township, has arrested residents on multiple occasions, whenever they become suspicious. Additionally, the military has also arrested people in Dantdee Village without providing any reasons or justifications. The arrests have even included children who were attending school in the village.”

38 of the arrested people, some of whom were primary school students, were from Dantdee Village and a further 22 were from villages in the western part of Mindat Township. Of the 60 arrested people 50 have been released.

10 adults are still being held in custody but their whereabouts and the reasons for their detention are not known, according to Zalat Thway.

He added that at the time of the arrests, between 9 and 29 September, in Mindat Township there were five battles between defence forces and junta forces, resulting in four junta soldiers being killed and a further nine being injured. One CDF Mindat soldier was killed and another was injured.

During that time, two villagers from Dantdee Village were also injured by artillery shells fired by the junta.

There have been electricity and water outages in Mindat Township for the last four months. Also, it was cut off from the internet, but the junta-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) recently restored the internet service, though there are still frequent outages.

Chinland Defense Force - Mindat issued a statement urging people in Mindat Township to be vigilant, take precautions and stay away from junta forces as the situation is still volatile