A junta-appointed administrator was shot and killed in Mandalay on Wednesday morning, with a local guerilla group claiming responsibility for the attack.
Thet Thet Cho, 58, was the administrator of ward 12 in Myitnge Township. She was shot at close range in the head at the entrance of Myitnge Market at around 7am.
“She only became administrator after the coup,” said a resident who lives near the market.
“She was forced to live at the administration office because her neighborhood wouldn’t accept her.”
“She was shot today near the checkpoint at the entrance, where they check whether people are wearing masks and stuff. She died on the spot,” added the resident, who did not witness the incident.
Video footage posted on Facebook showed a man shooting Thet Thet Cho at close range at a crowded market. Two gunshots could be heard in the video.
A guerilla group called NGUFF – Never Give Up: Fox Force – said in an announcement that it was responsible for the killing.
Thet Thet Cho is the second female administrator to have been assassinated since the February coup. Soe Soe Lwin, the military-assigned administrator of Kyar Kwat Thit ward in Tamwe, Yangon, was shot and killed on June 8.
Myitnge residents said Thet Thet Cho worked as a paratha vendor before she was appointed ward administrator by the military council in April.
Soldiers came to investigate after the killing, but left in the afternoon without arresting anyone, according to local residents.
Some administrators have resigned from their positions amid frequent assassinations of junta-appointed officials across the country in recent months.