Junta shelling kills three IDP Women in Pekon

Three internally displaced people (IDPs), all women, were killed in artillery shelling by the junta and its allied Pa-O National Organisation (PNO) in Pekon Township, southern Shan State, near the Karenni State border.

On November 22, seven IDPs returning from terrace farms near Bawyan Village, west of Pekon Township, were struck by junta-PNO artillery fire, resulting in the deaths of three.

“There were skirmishes nearby that day. Seven IDPs were hit by artillery while returning from terrace farms, and three of them were killed. Lately, the junta has been shelling the area almost every day,” a frontline resistance source told Shan Herald.

Of the women who died, one was over 60, and the other two were between 20 and 30.

Fierce clashes are occurring nearly every day between the junta-PNO alliance and the Karenni resistance coalition near Bawyan Village.

“Sometimes the fighting goes on for three or four days at a time, and lately it’s been happening almost every day. The junta has been using drones heavily, and there have been casualties on the enemy side and injuries on ours,” the aforementioned source said.

In the first half of October, junta-PNO troops pushed into Salong (South), Salong (North), and Bawyan villages in western Pekon Township, burning homes as they advanced, according to locals.