27 June 2021

In four separate incidents across Kani township, the Myanmar military rounded up male villagers and killed them. These events took place from the end of June and through July 2021. The discovery of 40 bodies buried in mass graves in Kani township revealed the brutal tactics employed by the military. Many of the bodies had hands bound and displayed signs of torture before either being burned or buried in shallow graves. Analysis by Myanmar Witness, in collaboration with the BBC, indicated how villagers were rounded up, separated by gender and killed. The township had been an opposition stronghold following the coup. Reporting claims that the killings were a punishment for attacks by pro-democratic militia groups.