Young students were persuaded in a rally organized by pro-military supporters in Taungoo Township, Taungoo District in Bago Region, according to sources.
As pro-military supporters persuaded young students from Lawkoetayar ward in Taungoo in the protest, the parents of students were worried, a local woman who declined to be named for security reasons, said.
“Pro-military supporters took many high school students from Lawkoetayar ward to the rally. It is easy for them to persuade students to join the rally. I don’t know if the teachers told them in advance,” a local woman said.
In addition, the pro-military supporters also persuaded the youths in the ward to join the protest.
Another resident said: “The military council persuaded youths in the ward. Some youths who have knowledge about it did not join the rally. The military council persuaded not only students but also youths to organize a rally against hitting the pagoda with a hammer.
On the morning of 16 January, more than 1,000 people including monks and nuns staged a rally from the Kaytumadi arch in Taungoo along Yangon-Mandalay Road, chanting that “We don’t want the evil subversives who are destroying pagodas and religious buildings,” and “Serve the interests of religion.”
Shortly after the rally, the military council compiled the list of those who would attend the militia training through administrators, farmers said.
The military council’s forced recruitment of new soldiers and the protests which aim for religious propaganda are common when it suffers political and military losses. They can organize only a handful of their supporters, said an official of Taungoo District-PDF-3501 Battalion.
Ko Nat Mauk, information officer of Battalion-3501 said: “Religious propaganda is linked to the fact that the military council is facing losses in the political and military sectors. They can mobilize the organizations and the supporters which are engaged in the spread of religious propaganda. Persuading us through religious propaganda and forcing us to take militia training makes us strong.”
The military council has been holding similar rallies in various parts of the country until now, following a video of a Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)- Kokang Army soldier hitting a pagoda with a hammer went viral on social media while the operation is gaining momentum in northern Shan State in the second week of January.
Sent by KIC