Over 20 teenagers killed: Junta cracks down on protesters

Myanmar (AFP) 24 March 2021-   Three people were killed on Tuesday including seven-year-old girl Khin Myo Chit, shot dead at her home in Mandalay, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a local monitoring group.   

AFP has yet to independently verify the girl’s death.   

Aid group Save the Children and AAPP both say that at least 20 people aged under 18 have been killed in the crackdown.   

 “We are horrified that children continue to be among the targets of these fatal attacks on peaceful protesters,” Save the Children said in a statement.   

Seperately Myanmar freed more than 600 coup detainees on Wednesday, including an Associated Press photographer arrested while covering rallies, following fresh outrage over brutal crackdowns on protesters. 

 
The regime has unleashed a deadly wave of violence as it struggles to quell nationwide protests against the February 1 ouster and arrest of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.   

The 75-year-old was due to have a court hearing on Wednesday in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, on criminal charges that could see her permanently barred from political office.   

There was chaos overnight in Mandalay with barricades burning, arrests, homes raided by security forces, beatings and machine guns ringing out over multiple neighbourhoods, local media reported.