The junta military has committed many acts of violence against civilians since 1 February 2021.
Many churches have been burned and towns torched by the military. Religious buildings have made especially tantalizing targets for rocket and arson attacks, given that the Buddhist-nationalist military is prone to violence against religious minorities.
On 23 June, military junta soldiers burned Thantlang Baptist Church (TBC), the oldest and largest church, located in the town of Thantlang in Myanmar’s majority-Christian Chin state.
TBC was razed in the 30th attack the military has made on the village since October 2021. The military has burned eleven more churches and over 1,000 homes in Thantlang alone throughout its many attacks on the village.
In the same attack that left Thantlang Baptist Church a burned-out husk, the military also destroyed another church called The Believer’s Church. Soldiers also destroyed the entire compound of Basic Education High School, a local school that was comprised of several buildings.