Four high school students reported missing from a subtownship of Mohnyin township in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state have been found by police in neighboring Hpakant, a school administrator said Friday.
The students, two of whom are in the eighth grade and two of whom are in the ninth grade at Mya Thida High School in Hopin subtownship, went missing on June 18 and had last been seen along the Indawgyi-Hpakant roadway.
The four had left Hopin and went to Saitaung ward in neighboring Hpakant township where one of parents of student Wai Min Soe lives, said Mya Thida High School administrator Soe Min Tun.
“Wai Min Soe’s parent informed other parents that the boys were at the house, and then the parents informed us,” he said.
“Wai Min Soe had asked his friends over to his parent’s house,” Soe Min Tun said. “We are happy to see them safe.”
The high school had informed officials in neighboring Hpakant, Mogaung, and Mohnyin townships about the missing students, who had not been in contact with their parents since Monday.
During a search of the Indawgyi-Hpakant area, police found the four in Hpakant township and have informed their parents to collect them, said officer Byet San of the Hopin Myoma Police Station.
Win Win Hlaing, mother of missing student Thant Zin Tun, said she was informed that her son was found on Friday and that he is at the Hpakant Police Station.
It was feared that the students might have been taken against their will in war-torn Kachin state where abductions of civilians by human traffickers, the national army, and ethnic militias are common.
In 2017, human traffickers abducted four women from Mohnyin township and took them to China where they later escaped.
Reported by Kyaw Myo Min for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.