Three political prisoners serving life sentences under the junta have been freed after resistance forces captured Banmauk Town in Banmauk Township, Katha District, Sagaing Region, near the Kachin State border.

Resistance forces seized Banmauk Town on the evening of September 20, and three political prisoners detained there were also released, according to sources close to the matter.

The three freed political prisoners had all been arrested in Banmauk Town: one for providing logistics support for the resistance movement, another for joining the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), in which government staff and civil servants refuse to work for the junta, and a third on other political charges.

“Yes, it’s true that three political prisoners have been released. One of them had been helping the resistance with logistics. All three had been sentenced to life in prison. They were arrested in Banmauk and kept there, not transferred elsewhere. It’s likely they couldn’t be moved because the routes around Banmauk were already under resistance control,” a source told KNG.

All three were released on the evening of September 20, shortly after resistance forces gained full control of Banmauk Town.

The logistics helper and the other political prisoner were men, both arrested in June 2023, while the CDM participant was a female education worker arrested in 2024.

According to sources close to the freed inmates, not only the three political prisoners but also a man held on drug charges was released alongside them.

Although Banmauk Town is now under resistance control, frontline sources warn that further fighting could erupt at any time, as junta and ally Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA) troops remain stationed in villages on the town’s western and northern outskirts.