A group of Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) supporters in Magway region stabbed two people to death on Friday in a mob attack against a National League for Democracy (NLD) official and his family, one of the survivors said.
The attack in the village of Kyaung Gone Gyi killed 53-year-old Htway Naing, the NLD’s local chair, as well as his 17-year-old nephew Nan Wai Aung.
The two were on their way home from a friend’s house with six other family members in the morning when a group of about 25 knife-wielding USDP supporters attacked them in front of a wood workshop, said Bo Bo, who survived the attack and is Htway Naing’s son.
“They were waiting in front of the wood workshop,” he told Myanmar Now. “When we passed by, they came towards us and attacked us. They had their weapons ready.”
“When we fell over, they stabbed us with knives. When they couldn’t reach us to stab us, they attacked us with catapults. I heard them saying ‘If they die, we can do whatever we want. Kill them all’,” said Bo Bo, who was injured by a catapult.
The five other survivors were also injured, some by knives and some by slingshots, he added.
“We ran away and I couldn’t even save my own father,” he said.
The attack came without warning. Thein Lin, a Kyaung Gone Gyi resident, said there hadn’t been any disputes between the victims and the attackers.
“The kid was too young,” he said, referring to Nan Wai Aung.
One of the attackers was identified as Kyaw Khine Oo, a USDP member who ran in last year’s election for a lower house seat in Pwint Phyu township but lost to the NLD. He did not answer phone calls seeking comments regarding the accusation.
Nine suspected attackers have been detained, including some captured by local residents before being taken to the Pwint Phyu township police station. The family are trying to open a murder case.
Kyaw Khine Oo and the other alleged attackers are still at large, Bo Bo said.
The killings came amid another day of violence by the regime as anti-coup protesters took to the streets across the country even after police and soldiers murdered dozens over the past week.
Security forces in Mandalay on Friday morning killed 27-year-old Zaw Myo, who witnesses said had been waving a flag to warn protesters about the movements of police and soldiers.
During last year’s election USDP supporters attacked their NLD rivals several times. After the poll, a man who shouted that he was from the USDP killed an NLD supporter who had joined a victory celebration in Ayeyarwady region’s Kangyi Daunt township
