Since late May 2025 junta soldiers have been killing and arresting people on the road going between Leiktho and Thandaung towns in Karen State’s Thandaunggyi Township and on to Taungoo Town just inside Bago Region.
The junta holds the road but Thandaunggyi Township and the area of Bago Region between the border with Karen State and Taungoo Town is currently under the mixed control of the junta and the Karen National Union’s (KNU) Brigade 2.
Since 1 May 2025, KNU Brigade 2 has banned all travel on the road between the towns of Leiktho and Taungoo. Despite this, locals have risked continuing to use the road for essential reasons such as travelling to attend school, trade goods, and purchase food. Unfortunately, some of those travellers were killed and arrested by the junta on the road.
In late May 2025, 14 residents of Leiktho Town were arrested on the road near to Htonebogyi Village in Leiktho Sub-Township in Thandaunggyi Township as they were travelling from Leiktho Town to Taungoo Town. Later, the bodies of two of the arrested people were found by the side of the road, according to eyewitnesses.
A resident of Leiktho Town said to KIC: “They [the arrested people] used to carry turmeric from Leiktho to Taungoo, and on the way back, they’d bring rice from Taungoo to Leiktho. But last week, when they reached Htonebogyi, the soldiers stationed there stopped them and checked their phones. 14 people were arrested. Some were released later after their families negotiated with the troops. But sadly, the bodies of two of them were found dumped by the roadside near Htonebogyi.”
In a separate incident, also in late May, junta troops opened fire on two civilians riding a motorcycle on the road as they were travelling from Thandaunggyi to Taungoo, killing one and injuring the other, according to a woman from Thandaunggyi Township.
She said: “We heard that soldiers were arresting and killing people in Htonebogyi. Here in Thandaunggyi [Township], two people on a motorcycle were shot at by soldiers just because they didn’t stop—they were simply too scared when the troops tried to flag them down, so they kept going. One of them was killed, and the other was injured. It happened near Shwenyaungpin and Sanaykone villages. The soldiers weren’t at a checkpoint—they were hiding in the forest around that area, acting as covert sentries.”
Junta soldiers have been arresting people along the Leiktho Town to Taungoo Town since late May until the time of reporting, 3 June. The exact number of arrested people and how many remain detained and how many have been subsequently released is currently unknown.
The KNU’s ban on travelling along the Leiktho to Taungoo Road has disrupted the flow of goods and trade in the region, leading to shortages and rising prices. But despite the ban, KNU Brigade 2 are allowing limited motorcycle travel on the road by people who urgently need to travel, according to sources living along the road.
