Pat Ja San, a Christian organization that uses violence to crack down on drug use and distribution in Kachin state, encountered deadly resistance on Friday when an unknown gunman shot and killed one of their members.
19-year-old Tu Seng was part of a mission of hundreds of people in Kachin’s Tanei Township who were roving through green poppy fields and hacking away at the lucrative cash crop.
“While we were destroying a poppy farm, he was shot and died on the trip,” Pat Ja San’s Naw Tawng told the Irrawaddy.
The owner of the farm is under suspicion, but no one has been arrested.
Myanmar is second to Afghanistan in opium production, and the industry has created its share of addicts, which in turn created vigilante organizations like Pat Ja San, part of the Kachin Baptist Church.
The group has an estimated 100,000 members and is known for publically beating the shit out of suspected drug users and dealers, normally through flogging.
Images and video of the eradication mission and its aftermath have been shared on social media, as has what appears to be a convoy carrying Tu Seng’s body.
In the video of the operation, the men can be seen walking through fields of poppy and hacking at the tops of the stems with machetes.
