The Arakan Army (AA) successfully rescued around 100 innocent civilians, including monks, the elderly, children and pregnant women held as human shields by the Myanmar junta for six days on November 21, 2023

On November 21, at approximately 12:02 pm, an intense clash erupted between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar junta in some downtown areas and Lawka Hteik Pan Pagoda Hill in Pauktaw Township, Arakan.

For six days, those people were held as hostages and utilized as human shields. This atrocious act of abduction had been perpetrated by the Myanmar junta starting from November 16, 2023.                       

The clash with Myanmar junta troops in Pauktaw downtown was triggered by the urgent need to rescue civilian hostages. This intense confrontation successfully liberated the hostages but resulted in a fierce fight where most of the SAC's troops were eliminated. Some military weapons and ammunition were seized during this intense fight. Some Arrakkha soldiers of the AA have sacrificed their lives for the country and the people, and some were injured.

Our adversary, the Myanmar military junta, has been aimlessly launching the sea-land-air joint operation - airstrikes, navy attacks, heavy artilleries, and multiple rocket launchers at the places where the clash was breaking out and at the places where there was no clash.

The Arakan Army (AA) remains committed to defending the lives, properties, and prosperity of the Arakan people, vowing to respond to anyone threatening them. Any SAC troops who are committing war crimes against the Arakan people will suffer the consequences, as previously announced by the Arakan Army (AA).

While striving to ensure the safe evacuation of the remaining hostages used as human shields, the Arakan Army (AA) is and will eliminate the remainder of the SAC's troops in Pauktaw Township, Arakan.