A military council-appointed ward administrator in Mandalay’s Chan Aye Thazan Township was shot in the head by two gunmen on Wednesday afternoon, according to a ward resident who arrived at the scene after the assassination.
Aung Swe Tun, 47, was the administrator for Shwe Hlan ward. He was killed at his office and the perpetrators immediately fled the site of the murder, according to the resident.
He noted that strict Covid-19 travel restrictions, including a stay-at-home order in place from 9am until 3pm, were in effect when Aung Swe Tun was killed.
The resident told Myanmar Now that young people from the ward had been arrested by the junta’s armed forces in recent days, and speculated that this may have prompted retaliation from local resistance.
He alleged that Aung Swe Tun was a military informant.
“He personally showed the soldiers the way to the houses on 79th and 29th streets [in Shwe Hlan ward] where they arrested the youth,” he said.
Myanmar Now attempted to contact Aung Swe Tun’s family to comment on the allegations, but had received no response at the time of reporting.
Since May, local resistance and guerrilla forces have been carrying out targeted killings of junta-appointed administrators, USDP members, and civilians suspected of acting as collaborators with the coup council or military informants.
At the time of reporting, more than 1,000 civilians had been killed by the junta’s troops since Myanmar’s February 1 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
In Mandalay, families of the victims have reported that the military is increasingly refusing to return the bodies of the deceased to their relatives for burial.
