Two Burmese Army personnel were killed in a bus accident on June 14. The bus was proceeding from Chin state to Kachin state, Burma carrying 80 soldiers as reinforcement in the army’s war with the Kachin Independence Army. Forty were injured.
“The soldiers were going to Kachin state as reinforcement,” said a relative of an army man Hakha, the capital of Chin state.
About 80 troops of the Light Infantry Battalion No. 266, based in Hakha, (locally called Swechinteih) were travelling in a route bus met with an accident and plummeted around 200 feet into a gorge between Falam town, Chin state and Kalemyo, Sagaining division.
The driver was also injured seriously, and the route bus was totally damaged in the accident, said an eyewitness.
“The army commandeered the private bus by force and it carried soldiers and ammunition. The group was being headed by an unidentified colonel,” an eyewitness from Hakha said.
The injured soldiers are being treated in the army hospital of Aungtitsa block, of the Kalemyo based Light Infantry Battalion No. 89. Two soldiers died after being admitted to the army hospital.
The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Burmese Army are engaged in a war after the ceasefire agreement between them was broken. Burmese troops have been sent to Kachin state from various places of the country to fight against Kachin rebels. - Khonumthung News
