Junta traffic checkpoint officer shot on crowded street in Mandalay

A deputy traffic inspector leading a team of armed junta personnel was hospitalised after being shot by unidentified assailants at a road checkpoint in Mandalay’s Pyigyitagon Township on Sunday, local sources said. The shooting occurred on 62nd Street, a busy north-south thoroughfare on the south side of Mandalay, between 124th and 125th streets, as the police inspector’s squad of about ten police officers, traffic police, and plainclothes, junta-trained Pyu Saw Htee militia members were stopping vehicles to search them. A resident of the township said that the officer leading the squad—a traffic police deputy inspector around 35 years old—was rumoured to have been shot in the chest. “At first, people just thought there had been a car accident because of all the commotion. Later, people found out it was a shooting,” he said. “As of last night, she was still in the hospital operating room. I hear her condition is not good. They say the injury is severe,” the Pyigyitagon resident added, citing eyewitness accounts. Soon after the shooting, junta soldiers arrived and examined the footage from nearby security cameras as well as searching passersby, looking under their motorcycle seats, and checking their phones, locals said. Pro-junta propaganda channels on Telegram posted claims on the evening of the shooting that two men on a CZI motorcycle travelling south on 62nd Street had carried out the shooting, adding that the injured female traffic officer was in critical condition. Since Myanmar’s military coup of 2021, the armed personnel responsible for searching pedestrians and vehicles in areas under junta control have regularly detained or extorted bribes from people passing through their checkpoints under the pretext of enforcing traffic and road rules. In Mandalay, these personnel are known to recruit local criminals and train them as Pyu Saw Htee militia members, incorporating them into teams with police officers, traffic police, and soldiers. They then set up moving checkpoints on both the main roads and side streets in Mandalay to trap passing vehicles and extort bribes from the occupants, according to the city’s residents. Locals also said the junta has noticeably tightened security in Mandalay, which is at most a few hours away from battle lines in northern Shan State, Sagaing Region, and Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township. “It's gotten worse lately. Police and soldiers are extorting money for any minor infraction, like out-of-date licences, not having motorcycle side mirrors, talking on the phone while driving, and so on. Even traffic police are checking national IDs, which aren't under their authority, just to find excuses to demand money,” said a local woman. "If you look at the vehicle inspection teams, the police women even have the latest iPhones and gold bracelets weighing two or three ticals,” she said, referring to a weight of up to 250 carats or 49 grams. “They come in luxury cars. They’re the only ones getting rich in these bad times,” she added. This is not the first incident in which a traffic enforcement team has come under attack in Mandalay. In December of last year, a deputy traffic inspector known as "Jack Ma" was shot while riding a motorcycle in the city centre and died while undergoing emergency treatment at a hospital.

Junta traffic checkpoint officer shot on crowded street in Mandalay

The squads of regime personnel and Pyu Saw Htee militia members manning traffic checkpoints have gained a reputation for trapping passing civilians and extorting bribes

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