Junta troops arbitrarily shot and killed a farmer and then arrested his wife in Pekhon Township, southern Shan State, according to the Shan Human Rights Foundation.

The junta soldiers then demanded 3,500,000 kyats to release the woman and her husband’s body.

The junta troops started randomly firing at the couple as they were working in a field near Kawng Ee Village, Pekhon Township, southern Shan State, on 21 August 2023. The husband, aged 31, was killed instantly and the wife, aged 28, was injured. The junta troops then arrested the injured wife.

Earlier that day, the couple, from Koong Suan Village, had taken advantage of a lull in fighting between the junta and defence forces to go to their farmland between Kawng Ee and Settaw villages. They were clearing their land to plant corn when, at 8:00 a.m., five junta soldiers from the Paykone Hill junta army camp came towards the field where they were working and shot at them for no reason.

The husband was hit by six bullets and he died on the spot. His wife was hit in the shoulder and injured. The junta troops took the corpse and the injured woman back to the Paykone Hill camp.

Their relatives went to Paykone Hill camp to beg the junta troops to release the farmer’s body and the woman, but the soldiers demanded a payment of 3,500,000 kyats to release them.

The woman and the body of her husband were only released after relatives paid the junta soldiers 3,500,000 kyats, on 22 August.

The Paykone Hill camp was set up by the junta army in 2022.