A man was seriously injured after he and his 4-year-year son were shot by regime troops in a village in Chin State’s Kanpetlet Township on Sunday.
The incident occurred at around 11am, when soldiers patrolling Kant Thar Yon, a village about a mile outside the town of Kanpetlet, opened fired near the man’s house.
Thirty-year-old Thang Htong and his son Naing Thang were both inside their home when they were hit by stray bullets, according to a member of the Kanpetlet Township Public Administration Committee, a civilian management group set up by opponents of Myanmar’s military junta.
Thang Htong was hit in the arm, thigh and abdomen and was taken to a public hospital in the city of Magway, about 250km away, with serious injuries. The child was not badly hurt, locals told Myanmar Now.
Residents of the village said the shooting was unprovoked.
“The soldiers said they were shooting at a suspicious-looking man on a motorcycle, but it seems more like they were just firing shots at random,” said one Kanpetlet resident who spoke to villagers who arrived on the scene shortly after the incident.
There have been tensions in the area since clashes broke out between junta troops and the Chinland Defence Force-Kanpetlet (CDF-Kanpetlet) in the village of Kha Nan on July 27.
Although there has been no fighting since then, the regime has maintained a heavy military presence in Kanpetlet and surrounding villages, according to the local management group.
“They’re fully armed and patrolling the town. Some are in plain clothes, hiding and ready for ambushes,” said a spokesperson for the group.
“There is also a checkpoint in front of a high school in the centre of town,” the spokesperson added, noting that at least five young people have been arrested since August 6 after their phones were inspected while passing the checkpoint.
Kanpetlet was the scene of fierce clashes in late May, when local CDF fighters carried out a series of attacks on junta reinforcements sent to crush the local anti-coup resistance movement.
