A police chief and a village administrator under the junta were assassinated in separate guerrilla attacks in Mandalay Region over the weekend, according to the groups responsible.
Police lieutenant Saw Naing Oo, interim head of the Wundwin Township police station, was shot and killed by a gunman on a motorcycle while driving his car to a local teashop on Sunday evening. He was accused of abusing detained activists and civil servants taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).
“He didn’t spare women during interrogations. Female CDM teachers and nurses were harassed and beaten by him,” a local source said.
An officer from the Wundwin Township Revolutionary Force (WTRF) told Myanmar Now that the group’s members pursued police lieutenant Saw Naing Oo as he exited a township administration office, noting that the attack was possible because they had received intel regarding his movements.
“We chased him down as he drove his car. We fired six rounds. He was also armed with a pistol but we couldn’t seize that weapon due to security concerns [after the attack],” the officer explained.
He added that since the assassination, the military had started searching for an information leak within the local police force in an attempt to prevent future attacks. Junta troops also reportedly blocked roads and conducted searches of people in at least three of Wundwin’s wards, and arrested six people who had been watching a televised football match at the tea shop near where the shooting took place.
On Saturday, the 50-year-old village administrator of Myakantha in Patheingyi Township, Tin Maung Win, was killed in an exchange of gunfire with members of another guerrilla group, the Mahar Revolution Force (MRF). The MRF is based in Madaya Township, north of Mandalay city, while Patheingyi lies to the east.
“The assailants said they were there to get a recommendation letter [from Tin Maung Win] but the administrator’s wife became suspicious and told them that he had gone to Mandalay,” a resident of Myakantha told Myanmar Now. “He came out of hiding a few moments later and started firing at the group, and the group fired back.”
The villager said that Tin Maung Win died after being hit twice, in the chest and arm, and that the sound of the gunfire attracted soldiers and police officers stationed in the village to the scene.
“The assailants managed to escape but the administrator was killed on the spot,” he added.
An MRF member confirmed the local account, emphasising that Tin Maung Win was the first to fire his weapon—a handmade pistol which they seized—as the guerrilla fighters attempted to enter the home by force.
“He had been aiding the military in their oppressive mechanisms and we’d been planning to eliminate him for quite some time, but couldn’t do so earlier as the military is stationed inside the village. However, we had a chance yesterday, so we decided to do it,” he told Myanmar Now on Sunday evening.
On Sunday afternoon, the MRF said that they also engaged in a shootout with Myanmar army soldiers after setting off four explosive devices which hit three military trucks near a checkpoint along the highway connecting Mandalay and Mogok.
The group claimed responsibility for multiple shootings of junta targets in Madaya in August, including alleged informant Hnin Su Hlaing, who was killed in eastern Kin village, and three village administrators in a tea shop in Wathonedara, two of whom died.
