A Baptist pastor named William from Myanmar’s Chin State was killed by the country’s military junta along with a Chin Christian named Nam Seu. The pastor had led his congregation for more than 25 years.

According to the US-based organization International Christian Concern (ICC), the pastor and the layman were arrested in May and had been held in military custody ever since, reports The Christian Post.

They were accused of assisting the Hakha Chinland Defense Force, an armed group fighting against the junta.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been in conflict since the 2021 coup, when the military overturned the second consecutive election victory of the party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The seizure of power developed into a nationwide war that expanded the long-running struggle between the military and ethnic armed movements that had long contested government control in the country’s border areas and demanded autonomy. Since then, new pro-democracy resistance groups have joined forces with established ethnic forces, some of which are made up of Christians.

Reverend William was killed on June 4, and his funeral ceremony was held on August 26 in Chunchung, according to the Maryland-based Burma Research Institute.

Reverend William’s church, Chunchung Baptist Church, was looted and burned in October 2021, while the village surrounding it has been repeatedly subjected to violent attacks since the military junta seized power that same year.

As LF reported,, Russia will build a Russian Orthodox Church in Myanmar. Russian President Vladimir Putin made the statement during talks with Min Aung Hlaing, the president of Myanmar and formerly the commander-in-chief of the armed forces who led the military junta that carried out the coup in the republic five years ago.