In Kyaukme Town, Kyaukme Township, Shan State, junta troops have intensified arrests of individuals suspected of affiliation with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and have posted notices on homes and shops declaring these properties confiscated.

The junta retook the formerly TNLA-controlled town of Kyaukme on October 1. Since then, soldiers have intensified manhunts in the town’s central wards for alleged former TNLA collaborators. Locals reported that the suspects have been arrested and their homes and shops confiscated by the junta.

“Anyone suspected of having ties to the TNLA or the National Unity Government (NUG) is being arrested, though we don’t know exactly how many. Some shops have red notices posted on them, saying they’ve been confiscated. We’ve also heard that the junta is going after people who were appointed as ward administrators when the TNLA was in control,” said a Kyaukme Town resident.

In the last week of October, junta troops forcibly closed and sealed Zay Thit tea shop in Ward 6 of Kyaukme Town, arresting the owner and declaring the shop confiscated. Locals said at least eight people are currently being interrogated in junta detention, though Shan Herald cannot independently verify these claims.

The One Love Hotel, struck by a junta airstrike at the start of the second phase of 'Operation 1027', launched by the TNLA and allied groups against the coup regime, has also been seized by the junta.

“The junta is going after people who worked under the Palaung Army (TNLA) when it was in control. These individuals openly collaborated with the TNLA at the time. On Telegram, pro-junta groups are pushing hard for these arrests, and it’s highly likely that more people known to have helped the TNLA will be detained,” the aforementioned source said.

On July 15, the junta recaptured the former TNLA-controlled town of Naungcho (Nawnghkio) in northern Shan State and subsequently seized around 20 homes and a gold shop belonging to alleged supporters of the TNLA and Danu People’s Liberation Army (DPLA).

In addition, displaced youths who returned to their villages in the Tawnghkam Village Tract of Naungcho Township after fighting subsided following the junta’s recapture were taken into custody by junta troops on unsubstantiated allegations of supporting the TNLA, DPLA, and People’s Defence Force (PDF), resulting in the arrest of more than 30 returnees.

The junta retook Naungcho in mid-July and Kyaukme and Thibaw (Hsipaw) in October, towns in northern Shan State that were previously under TNLA control. However, residents whose homes were destroyed during ‘Operation 1027’ and those facing landmine threats in their villages remain unable to return from displacement.