At least five people were arrested in Yangon’s Botahtaung Township on Wednesday night near the site of the shooting death of former Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) MP Nay Myo Aung.
According to local residents, all five live near Botahtaung Pagoda, where Nay Myo Aung was gunned down on June 10 by two men on a motorcycle.
Two of the detainees, Win Htay and Hla Htay, were said to be employees of the Myanma Port Authority’s civil engineering department. The other three were identified as Soe Thaung, Htein Lin and Kyaw San Win.
Relatives of the men said they have not heard from them since they were taken into custody.
A member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) who lives in Botataung Township told Myanmar Now that none of the five detainees are affiliated with his party.
“Regarding the death of Nay Myo Aung, some USDP members were pointing fingers at whoever they thought were the assailants,” he said.
Nay Myo Aung was elected to the Yangon Region parliament in 2010 as the member for Seikkan Township’s constituency 2, but lost his seat five years later when the NLD swept to power.
In 2018, he ran again and defeated his NLD rival by around 150 votes. However, the result was later overturned due to alleged electoral fraud, allowing the NLD candidate, who received the second-highest number of votes, to claim the seat.
Following his murder, USDP spokesperson Thein Tun Oo said that the party was trying to respond in accordance with the law.
USDP members have been accused of acting as informants to the regime that seized power on February 1. A number of party members have been targeted by guerilla groups formed in the wake of murderous crackdowns on protesters.
On May 27, the USDP township chair in Bilin, Mon State, was fatally shot in the head by two gunmen in a drive-by shooting while he and his wife were walking to their rambutan plantation.
On June 1, a USDP member and former local administrator in Mohnyin, Kachin State, was shot dead near a market in a pre-dawn assassination.
