Among the prisoners of war captured by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during the battle at Kandaung Police Station in Pale Township, Sagaing Region, are 15-year-old Nay Htet Lin from Yangon, who was forcibly recruited as a porter, and new recruits who were abandoned by the military after being wounded. Nay Htet Lin was selling barbecue in Yangon when the military forcibly recruited him as a soldier, sending him to No. 7 Basic Military Training School in Taungdwin Gyi where he underwent five months of training. He was then transferred to Battalion 252 in Pakokku for refresher training before being airlifted to Inmatee Pyusawtee village in Pale Township.
From there, he was sent to the embattled Kandaung Police Station, where he fell asleep while on duty in a bunker. When the military retreated, they left him behind without waking him up, as revealed by Nay Htet Lin himself. Similarly, new recruit Soe Ta, who was wounded and left behind during the battle for Kandaung Police Station, disclosed that he was forcibly recruited from Yangon Highway Terminal, sent to Pinlong Military Training School, and then deployed to the Kandaung Police Station battle. He was subsequently abandoned by the military after being wounded.
POW and new recruit Ye Kyaw Kyaw revealed that three members of the People’s Militia who came as military reinforcements to the Kandaung Police Station battle were killed instantly by revolutionary forces’ attacks, and that the military abandoned wounded new recruits. Additionally, Police Sub-Lieutenant Shein Ko Ko Kyaw from Kandaung Police Station, who had served as a police officer since 1999, admitted that he was captured as a POW after being abandoned by the military when wounded, and that the revolutionary forces provided him with proper medical treatment.
