The junta is abducting and conscripting young people in Kale Town, Sagaing Region more aggressively and openly than before and not accepting bribes to release them, like previously.
Abductions for conscription started increasing in Kale Town a few days before 19 June 2025, the 80th birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained Myanmar State Counsellor. Since then junta soldiers and police have been roaming the town in unmarked cars abducting and conscripting about 30 young men a week from bus stations, pubs, restaurants, and workplaces in Kale Town, according to a local source closely tracking the situation.
He said to Khonumthung News: “Abductions in the town have surged since before Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday. Soldiers and police have even carried out sudden raids targeting young men playing Chinlone [caneball]. In a single week, as many as 30 to 40 young men have been taken. Police often drive around in unmarked cars, snatching people off the streets.
“After being detained, they’re first taken to the police station and then sent for a medical check at the 100-bed military hospital. Some families say officials offered them a chance to pay 2 million MMK to ensure a failed result on the [medical] check. But even with a failed result, there’s no assurance the young men will be released. If a flight is available, the junta quickly transfers them to military training camps in Sagaing or other cities.”
In late May, a middle-aged man from Tahan, a downtown ward in Kale Town, was abducted by junta troops while returning home from work and sent to the frontline, according to his mother.
She said: "My son was the one supporting our family. He was taken just as he was coming home from work. I did everything I could, reaching out to all my contacts to try to get him released. I was told that I could get him back if I paid 3 million MMK, but then they kept demanding even more money. In the end, they never let him go. Later, all I heard was that they put him on a plane and sent him off to Shan State.”
In June, the younger brother of the junta-appointed ward administrator in Kale Town’s Nyaungpinthar Ward was conscripted. The junta told the administrator that they would only release his brother if he could find a substitute to take his place and that he would not be released in exchange for money. The administrator could not find a substitute and his brother was conscripted.
At present, it is calm in Kale Town and there is no fighting but the junta forces in the town have tightened security and occasionally randomly fire artillery into the surrounding areas.
