Sep 22, 2008 (DVB), A resident of Myitkyina said a local ward Peace and Development Council member and three locals were slapped and forced to do squats by an official after they questioned him while on guard duty.

At around midnight on 19 September in Jarmaikung ward, a ward PDC secretary and three local men were on night guard duty at the fire station, which shares a building with the ward PDC office.

A Jarmaikung resident said the men spotted a stranger passing by and started questioning him.

"The people on night guard duty questioned the stranger, as they had been ordered," the local said.

"He happened to be an official from the Military Affairs Security who was passing through the ward," he explained.

"They let him go after questioning him, but he came back later in a truck and took the people who had questioned him to the intelligence office," he went on.

"When they got there, the MAS official, without saying a word to them, slapped the ward PDC secretary and the ward locals, and then ordered them to do squats."

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw