Dec 26, 2021: More than 30 people, including women and children, were killed and their bodies burned Friday in Myanmar’s state of Kayah, according to a local resident, media reports and a local human rights group.

The Karenni Human Rights Group says it has found the charred bodies of internally displaced persons, including elderly people, women and children, who were killed by Myanmar’s military on Saturday near the village of Mo So in the town of Hpruso.

The Myanmar military said it had shot and killed an unspecified number of “terrorists with weapons” from the opposition armed forces in the village, state media said. The people were in seven vehicles and did not stop for the military, it said.

Photos shared by the human rights group and local media showed the charred remains of bodies on burnt-out truckbeds.

The Karenni National Defence Force, one of the largest of several civilian militias opposing the junta that led a Feb. 1 coup, said the dead were not their members but civilians seeking refuge from the conflict.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military overthrew the elected government of Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi almost 11 months ago, claiming fraud in a November election that her party had won. International observers have said the ballot was fair.

Civilians enraged by the coup and subsequent crackdown on protesters have been taking up arms. Many local resistance forces have sprung up across the country.

The military has outlawed many opponents, labelling them traitors or terrorists, including a self-proclaimed National Unity Government that seeks to lobby the international community and prevent the junta from consolidating power.

Stay tuned to BaaghiTV for latest news and Updates!