A group of attackers stabbed a ward administrator to death in the Sagaing Region capital of Monywa on Tuesday afternoon, local residents told Myanmar Now.
Thein Tun, the 50-year-old administrator of Thala ward, was riding his motorcycle on Yay Gu Kan street when the attackers intercepted him at around 4pm, a local who heard the account from witnesses told Myanmar Now.
He was pronounced dead shortly afterwards at Monywa General Hospital.
“They say the knife went straight through his heart and that it was just a single stab,” said the local.
Thein Tun continued to work as the ward administrator for Thala after the military coup in February, according to a second local.
“We told him to quit. He didn’t,” he said. “He just took the keys and opened the office. The whole neighbourhood gathered around and banged pots in front of his house. There were some conflicts like this.”
Monywa has been the site of some of the most tenacious anti-coup protests in the country, and regular rallies continue there even after deadly crackdowns.
Anti-junta guerilla forces have killed at least 64 local officials nationwide since the February 1 coup, according to figures compiled by Myanmar Now. Forty-nine of them were ward or village administrators and the rest were staff members of local administration bodies.
