After army helicopters had landed at the Northeastern Infantry Division Headquarters compound near Yanaungmyin Pagoda in Ward 10 of Lashio Town two RPGs were launched at the base. It is not known who fired the RPGs, but they were launched from a bluish black pickup truck with two men and two women in it, said a resident of Ward 10.

Arr Chan, a car driver from Lashio said: “Now the authorities are stopping and checking some cars both inside and outside of town. They were still checking this morning at 11am. Cars going to Mandalay are not allowed to go directly to Hsipaw. [They have to avoid Lashio and] make a detour via Namtu Town [by coming off the main road]. Over 1,000 cars have been stopped. After careful checks the cars are allowed to pass. Our town is no good to live in anymore. We hear gunshots every day.”

An airport staff member said: “Army helicopters are sent from the airport to Infantry Division Headquarters at nighttime. I heard there was shooting, I don’t know whether there were any casualties.”

Nan Hein Mai, a Shan woman from Lashio said that they regularly hear gunshots and those that they hear from the Lant Swe area are the government army shooting to discourage ethnic armed groups from attacking.

A member of an ethnic armed group said: “The authorities have stuck up signs in every ward saying that from 6pm to 5am people are not allowed use the road from Pauk-Sant-Late to the train station, which passes in front of the airport runway. These signs have been stuck up by the side of the road since 13 March. In my ward they only stuck them up this morning.”

He continued by saying that the current situation is very serious and that there may be a third hand creating unrest, so everyone should be careful, whatever they are doing.

Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI