Four people, including three village administrators, have been killed since the weekend in three separate incidents in Mandalay Region’s Myingyan District, as attacks on regime officials continue around the country.
Village administrator Myint Aung and his secretary Tin Tun were killed in the village of Kyaungpyu Kan on Monday amid accusations that they had called in regime soldiers to quell anti-coup activities there.
Junta troops stormed the village twice after Myint Aung threatened opponents of the regime, according to a resident who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity.
“We had to flee many times. He warned us that soldiers would come. He even fed them at his home,” said the villager, noting that Myint Aung was appointed to his position after the coup.
He added that many Kyaungpyu Kan residents, including striking teachers and other anti-coup dissidents, fled the village after the two men were killed.
The administrator of Myothar, a village in Myingyan District’s Ngazun Township, was also killed on Monday.
Win Naing, who also served as a second warrant officer in the military, was stabbed to death by two unidentified men at a beer shop near the local police station at around 11:30am, according to a Myothar resident.
He had been accused of taking photographs of anti-coup protesters and pointing out their homes to the regime’s authorities, resulting in several arrests.
Win Naing had been the administrator since before the February 1 military coup, said the villager, who noted that he was killed despite tightened security in the village.
“The place where the men stabbed him was not even a minute away from where the junta’s authorities were interrogating people,” he told Myanmar Now.
Last week, a bomb exploded near Win Naing’s house, but no casualties were reported, said the villager.
“His house was hit by a bomb. Other houses were also hit. He ignored the people’s warnings,” he added.
The two attacks came a day after another killing was reported in the village of Thapyaythar in Myingyan Township.
At around 5:30am on Sunday, about 10 people in camouflage uniforms took village administrator Win Shwe from his house and killed him at a location outside the village, according to a local resident who said he could not provide any further details about the incident.
Win Shwe was already village administrator before the coup. Local sources said he often cooked for and fed soldiers stationed in the village.
Myingyan was the scene last month of fierce clashes between regime forces and locals armed with hunting rifles and homemade weapons.
Attacks on local officials suspected of acting as regime informants have been reported around the country in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, an official who was also a pro-military candidate in last year’s election was shot and killed in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township.
At least two other officials were killed in Yangon last month, which also saw the shooting death in Mon State of a local township chair of the military’s proxy party.
