25 May 2026 By Ko Myo
MANDALAY, Myanmar — Armed military personnel and regime administrators in the town of Kyaukpadaung, Mandalay Region, have begun widening their forced conscription net to target elderly men, using arbitrary detentions as a lucrative extortion racket to fund military operations.
For nearly two years, young pedestrians, motorcyclists, and migrant laborers from nearby villages have been systematically rounded up on the streets of Kyaukpadaung under the regime’s mandatory draft. However, local sources confirmed to MPA that the dragnet has now aggressively expanded to include senior citizens.
“Just about three days ago, two elderly men around 60 years old were forcefully snatched by soldiers while they were walking along the town’s bypass road,” a local Kyaukpadaung tracking source reported. “They were eventually released, but only after their families paid a hefty ransom.”
According to residents, junta forces patrol the town center in unmarked vehicles, targeting vulnerable individuals on foot or motorcycles while generally avoiding citizens traveling in cars.
“When they capture senior citizens, they don’t intend to conscript them into combat. Instead, they openly demand between 500,000 to 600,000 MMK (approximately $150 USD), framing it shamelessly as ‘fuel money’ for the military patrol trucks,” the source added. “The climate of fear is choking the town. Most traditional teashops now completely shut down by 7:00 PM, leaving only a handful of large beer stations open.”
While elderly captives are being utilized as immediate cash generators, the fate of captured youths within the conscription age bracket has grown significantly darker.
Previously, families of abducted young men could successfully negotiate a buyout through corrupt intermediaries, paying up to 16 million MMK (nearly $4,800 USD) to secure a release from local military collection centers. However, monitors report that this illicit financial escape hatch has been abruptly closed. Captured youths are now being funneled directly into combat training battalions with no option for financial substitution.
Paradoxically, local defense monitors note that the military does not execute forced abductions at the four primary security gates controlling the entries and exits of Kyaukpadaung town. Instead, the tactical units prefer conducting unpredictable, mobile sweeps inside the residential inner perimeter, transforming regular commercial streets into high-risk zones.
As the Myanmar military struggles with unprecedented troop shortages on major frontlines across the country, the desperate resort to rural and urban kidnappings highlights a severe breakdown in regular administrative draft procedures. By weaponizing citizenship registries and turning the elderly into financial targets, critics insist the junta is further alienating the civilian heartlands of central Myanmar.
