A shooting in the fourth ward of Myingyan, Mandalay Region on Thursday morning killed a one-year-old girl and injured her father and another passerby, according to local sources.
The identity of the perpetrators had not been confirmed at the time of reporting, but eyewitnesses accused the armed guards stationed outside the home of local junta-appointed administrator Tun Tun Oo—three doors down from the victims’ house—of firing the shots.
Locals said that Tun Tun Oo is known to carry a gun and to have three armed guards in front of his house at all times.
A resident of the ward said that two plainclothes men arrived outside the house of 29-year-old Nyein Chan, the infant girl’s father—about whom little was known at the time of reporting—and fired shots in front of the residence.
The eyewitness said he believed the men were members of the administrator’s security team.
“There were guards in front of Tun Tun Oo’s house—I think they were the ones who shot them. They were saying that they had to shoot them because they were ‘acting suspicious,’” he told Myanmar Now, adding that the men fled the scene on a motorbike.
Another resident said there were three young men on motorbikes near the would-be scene of the shooting at the time at which Tun Tun Oo was returning home from lunch. The resident said that the guards opened fire after accusing the men of being members of the anti-coup People’s Defence Force (PDF). However, it has been other local guerrilla groups—not the PDF—that has claimed responsibility for carrying out targeted assassinations of local junta officials in the township.
Nyein Chan, shot twice in the arm, and his one-year-old daughter, shot in the head and the stomach, were not the intended targets, the resident said. The infant died at the scene.
Another passerby named Tin Tin Mar was also shot in the leg, as she reportedly screamed and attempted to run away, according to the first witness.
Tin Tin Mar, Nyein Chan and the body of his daughter were brought to the local public hospital on Thursday, an official from the Myingyan-based Hands of Purity social services group said.
Shortly after the shooting, tension remained high in the ward as junta troops arrived at Tun Tun Oo’s house and began interrogating passersby, even forcing some to kneel and put their hands behind their heads.
Ward 4 residents said that as of Thursday afternoon, no arrests had been concerning the shooting.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said on July 16 that a total of 75 children had been killed in Myanmar since the February 1 military coup. One of the youngest was a seven-year-old girl shot to death by junta soldiers while sitting in her father’s lap in Mandalay in late March.
