The Pinlaung massacre was a mass killing of civilians by Burmese military forces on 11 March 2023, in the village of Namneng, Shan State.

On 1 February 2021, the Myanmar Armed Forces staged a coup d'état and deposed the democratically elected government led by the National League for Democracy.

[2][3] The zone acts as a strategic buffer between more restive parts of Shan, Kayin and Kayah States and the national capital of Naypyidaw.

[7][5] On 11 March, around 5 am, Burmese army troops began raiding Namneng, while a unit situated on a nearby hill shelled the village with artillery.

[4] The following morning, resistance forces that returned to the village uncovered the bodies of 28 civilians, including 3 Buddhist monks at that local monastery.

[15] The attack was carried out by Myanmar Army troops which ultimately reports to Min Aung Hlaing, who also heads the military junta, the State Administration Council.

[19] The KNDF has posited that the military is actively trying to incite ethnoreligious conflict by killing Buddhist monks and civilians inside a monastic compound.

[21] On 16 March, the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) echoed the KNDF's sentiments, accusing the military of sowing religious conflict, when it released details of the massacre.

"[25] A week before the massacre, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had separately condemned the Burmese military's scorched earth strategy, which has killed thousands of civilians and destroyed 39,000 houses throughout the country since February 2022.