BANGKOK: Myanmar security forces have arrested a prominent student union and protest leader in a nighttime raid in the commercial hub of Yangon, a member of his protest group said on Thursday.
Paing Phyo Min was arrested late on Wednesday after authorities entered a residence in east Yangon's Thaketa township, Nan Lin of the Anti-Junta Alliance Yangon protest group said.
Paing Phyo Min has not been heard from since, he said, adding, “We are very concerned about his life and safety.”
“The military has tried to arrest Paing Phyo Min for a long time because he is a former student union member and also a protest leader in Yangon.”
Junta authorities in Yangon were not immediately reachable when contacted.
In 2019, under the quasi-civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, Paing Phyo Min was jailed for six years for performing a satirical poem criticising the military. The sentence sparked criticism from rights group Amnesty International, and he was released in 2021, according to the watchdog.
Following the military's 2021 ousting of Suu Kyi's government, Paing Phyo Min helped organise pro-democracy demonstrations in Yangon, which were later crushed by security forces.
The junta maintains a widespread network of informants and undercover police in Yangon and has largely squashed open challenges to its rule in the city of some eight million.
More than 27,000 people have been arrested by the junta in its crackdown on dissent since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.
Security forces have used torture and violence in their crackdown on dissent, rights groups say, and the United Nations rights office said in 2022 at least 290 people had died in custody. — AFP
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