25 February 2016•Update: 26 February 2016
By Kyaw Ye Lynn
YANGON, Myanmar
Armed poppy farmers have attacked members of a Camouflage jacket-wearing anti-drug vigilante group in northern Myanmar, leaving several people injured.
Samson Hkalam - a member of Pat Ja San, a community-based anti-drug group -- told Anadolu Agency by phone that the group was set upon Thursday as they began destroying poppy fields in Wine Maw township in northern Kachin state, which borders China.
“At least 20 members were injured, and one of them [was] wounded by gunfire,” said Hkalam.
“Armed farmers detained about 20 members, and the group [Pat Ja San] also detained about 100 poppy farmers."
Around 3,000 members of the Christian anti-drug group – notorious for its militia-inspired hardline tactics – had been blocked from the area by local authorities for eight days as they sought to destroy poppy fields.
However, authorities -- who had warned that the group could be attacked -- finally allowed them to pass through Tuesday following criticism from local civil society organizations.
Pat Ja San, formed two years ago by the powerful Kachin Baptist Church, is a militia-inspired anti-drug group, with most members wearing Camouflage jackets and brandishing batons.
The group claims that most Kachin youths became drug-addicted because of the lack of law in the area.
After Afghanistan, Myanmar is the world's second-biggest producer of opium, from which heroin is derived.
Kachin is one of Myanmar's two main opium growing areas.
