The military disposed of a man’s body after killing him following his arrest in Muse Township, northern Shan State.

Laphai Tuu Lum, 56, was arrested on his way back to his home in the mountains near Maw Tawng village before soldiers killed him and buried him in a maize field on 22 November.

According to a male source, they asked the Myoma People’s Militia Force about the missing man, who’s deaf in one ear, but they claimed to know nothing about his disappearance. After asking the Burma Army’s (BA) Light Infantry Division (LID) 99 several times, the soldiers finally admitted to shooting an armed man while he was descending the mountain. But Laphai Tuu Lum had no weapons on him except for a knife, said the man, who’d heard that LID 99 had clashed with the People’s Defence Force (PDF) in the area.

Villagers were able to recover his body on 23 November after the soldiers told them where they’d buried it.

“We found his body in a PDF uniform, but I think the soldiers put the clothes on him,” said the man, explaining that they tried to conceal by replanting corn stalks on the grave site.

Locals report that on the same day that Laphai Tuu Lum and nine others were abducted, the army fought with the PDF for 30 minutes near Maw Tawng. All the others were released on 23 November.

The incident has invoked fear among community, as it’s the first time the military has killed a civilian from their area.