Resistance groups in southern Chin State killed 3 Burma Army (BA) soldiers and wounded 8 others in a revenge raid after the military torched many houses in Thangtlang town last week.

“We decided to attack them in response to Thangtlang,” Chinland Defence Force (CDF) spokesperson Yaw Mang told Khonumthung News, explaining that a 30-minute firefight ensued in which one resistance fighter was injured following the ambush in Mindat on 31 October. After the battle ended, the BA dragged away its fallen soldiers. Locals reported that the BA attacked a church and a person’s house at the Si Chel Junction where the fighting had happened.

Last week, the military burnt down 160 houses and 2 churches in the town in northern Chin State.

“They started burning houses on the morning of 29 October. The fire spread from house to house,” a man from Thangtlang told Khonumthung News.

The Church On The Rock, Presbyterian Church and Chin Baptist Convention headquarters in Thangtlang Township were among the buildings completely destroyed in Friday’s attack.

It was the second time the army have burnt down people’s homes in Thangtlang.

On 18 September, the BA had shot Baptist pastor Cung Biak Hum in cold blood for trying to get others to put out fires in at least 19 houses that had been shelled. Most of the town’s 10,000 inhabitants fled to the Indian border, to the mountains or to villages in the township of the same name.

It was a retaliatory attack after the army lost 30 soldiers in fighting with the Chin National Front and CDF in the town.