Mother and 2 children shot dead with driver on Hakha-Falam road

A woman, her two children, and their driver, were shot dead by an unknown perpetrator returning from the Chin State capital, Hakha, to Kalay town on October 31, according to locals and the woman’s husband. The four victims, a 43-year-old woman, her two daughters aged 9 and 16, and a man in his 30s, were shot dead near regime-controlled Rialti village, about eight miles before reaching Falam. They were killed while returning home to Kalay after visiting the family’s father—a junta civil servant—in Hakha for the Thadingyut holiday, according to a Falam resident. The group departed Hakha in a three-wheeled motorcycle on the morning of October 31, but failed to arrive in the half-way town of Falam by that afternoon. The husband discovered their bodies the following day, according to the local man. “Her husband called because they should have reached Falam in an hour or two, but the phone was unreachable,“ he said. “Her husband came from Hakha to find out what happened. That’s when he found his wife, two daughters, and the three-wheeler driver dead. Only then did we know.” The perpetrator of the attack remains unknown. A memorial prayer service for the deceased was held in Kale on Monday morning. Myanmar Now attempted to contact Nay Lin Aung, the junta’s spokesperson for Chin State, but did not receive a reply. Local Chin resistance forces, including the Chinland Council and the Chin National Defence Force, were also contacted, but had not replied by the time of publication. Falam was captured by the Chin Brotherhood and allied resistance forces in 2024, but was retaken by the regime in April. Locals said that the junta had been conducting operations and ambushes along the 40-mile stretch of road between Falam and Hakha since then. Locals who fled the fighting in Falam in 2024 have been returning to the town since June last year, but as children continued to attend school elsewhere, most families have not yet returned to the town. “Some will return after the academic year ends. Gradually, it's becoming busier. People are trying their best to manage their lives,” another Falam local said. The regime now controls most major towns in northern Chin State, except the town of Rikhawdar on the Indian border. Since early this year, the junta had conducted a major offensive into southern Chin State via Magway Region to seize Mindat, Kanpetlet, and Matupi townships controlled by the Chin Brotherhood, as well as Arakan Army-controlled Paletwa.

Mother and 2 children shot dead with driver on Hakha-Falam road

The perpetrator of the attack, which killed all four passengers on the family’s return from spending the Thadingyut holiday with their father, remains unknown

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