Troops in Mandalay fire single shot at couple on motorbike, killing woman and injuring her husband

A 19-year-old woman was killed in Mandalay on Sunday night when the junta’s troops opened fire on a couple on a motorbike, local sources said. 

An eyewitness and a local relief worker said that 24-year-old Bo Bo and his wife, Htet Htet Win, were returning home to the Mya Yi Nandar housing complex after work, between 8:30 and 9pm– after the junta-imposed 8pm curfew. They were passing the intersection of Manaw Hari Road and 54th Street in Chanmyathazi township at the time of the shooting.

“[The troops] asked them to stop and opened fire when the husband didn’t stop the motorbike and drove through. Just one shot. The woman fell,” an eyewitness said on the condition of anonymity.

Htet Htet Win was on the back of the bike, with her husband driving. Bo Bo was shot first, but the bullet went through his abdomen and then hit his wife, the relief worker who later picked up Htet Htet Win’s body said. 

The worker said he was unsure whether Htet Htet Win’s cause of death was due to the gunshot wound or the head injury she suffered after falling from the motorbike. 

“It was only one bullet. They aimed at the husband but it hit both of them since they were both on the motorbike. The husband managed to come to us with an injury but the woman fell and died,” he said. 

It took the relief team nearly one hour to retrieve the woman’s body from the street since the junta’s troops remained in the area following the shooting. Removing her body from the scene immediately could have led to the rescuers also being shot at by the troops, the relief worker added. 

“It was like a killing field. We couldn’t save her. Even retrieving her body was very risky. They don’t care about rescue workers, either, and will shoot at anyone,” another member of the relief team said, referring to the junta’s armed forces.

Bo Bo had to undergo an operation to treat his own gunshot wound, the relief worker added.  

Regime troops have been carrying out near nightly attacks in Chanmyathazi township, specifically around Manaw Hari Road, in an effort to crack down on the many anti-coup protests in the area. They also raided the Mya Yi Nandar housing complex on March 22, killing at least eight people, including a 14-year-old boy.

Around 50 people, the youngest of whom was a 7-year-old girl, have been killed by the regime’s troops in Mandalay since early March. Hundreds have been injured.

The armed forces have often taken bodies of slain civilians, leaving family members unable to hold funerals for them. 

On Sunday morning, photos shared on social media suggested that the body of a man wrapped in a blanket had been abandoned near 78th Street in Mandalay’s Pyigyidagun township. At the time of reporting, Myanmar Now was unable to verify the identity of the deceased man.