Another local regime official in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township was targeted for assassination on Friday but escaped the attack unharmed, an eyewitness told Myanmar Now.
Maung Tun, a 100-household administrator for ward 19, was walking along U Chit Maung road at around 7am when the failed attack happened.
“Two men on a motorbike came and shot him, but he was quick,” the eyewitness said. “He ducked and ran away. We heard three shots but he didn’t seem to be injured.”
After the incident, police and soldiers stopped and inspected vehicles in the area and arrested two women near a market, according to local residents.
Maung Tun, 52, is accused of being an informant to the regime, which has killed over 800 civilians and detained thousands of its opponents since the February 1 coup.
“If anything happened, he’d call the police or soldiers,” the witness said. “He’d ask them to arrest people. He’s always spying on young people in the ward. He’d just report those he doesn’t like.”
Maung Tun is a member of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party and was appointed as an administrator by the military council.
“He has connections with police and soldiers, even above the level of ward administrator. If residents in the ward get rice or oil as supplies from donors, he will take a cut. He’s corrupt. Everyone knows him in the ward as a big snitch,” the witness added.
Guerilla groups formed in the wake of murderous crackdowns against protesters have killed numerous regime officials across the country in recent weeks, including two in Hlaing Tharyar.
Hla Oo, the administrator for the township’s ward 13, was killed on Wednesday morning. Sai Lin Zaw, a member of the township administration team, was killed by gunmen on June 1.
Hlaing Tharyar is one of six townships in Yangon that is under martial law. The regime has also imposed the measures in Mindat, Chin State, where local armed resistance has been fierce.
Lieutenant General Soe Htut, the junta’s minister for home affairs, gave the families of some assassinated ward administrators 500,000 kyat cash handouts at a meeting in Yangon earlier this month.