A military officer was stabbed by a group of men who also took a private captive during an attack on Thursday morning near the central market in Rakhine state’s Ponnagyun township.
The injured officer was taken away on a motorbike by the police, witnesses told Myanmar Now.
Oo Tun Maung, the Pyithu Hluttaw MP for Ponnagyun, said the military showed up later on and gunfire was heard throughout the town.
“I was at home at about 8am and I saw people running away from the market with their motorcycles and trishaws. When I asked them why, they said someone had just gotten stabbed at the market,” Oo Tun Maung said.
Locals hid in bomb shelters when they heard shooting. When the gunfire stopped at around 11am, a man in his forties was found dead with bullet wounds, said Amyotha Hluttaw MP Khin Maung Latt.
The military then inspected houses and residents, locals said, and tightened security throughout the town on Friday.
A statement issued by the military said an officer and a private from a regional unit in civilian clothing were about to enter the Myothit market when eight unidentified men surrounded them. One of the men stabbed the officer, it added.
As the officer was drawing his pistol, seven men attacked him and the private with iron rods and then captured the private. The officer was left with injuries, it said.
The military suggested the attackers could be members of the Arakan Army or affiliated with them.
Security forces are searching for the attackers to rescue the private soldier, the military said.
Ponnagyun township, on the Yangon-Sittwe highway, is close to Rakhine’s capital Sittwe, and is one of the regions facing clashes between the Arakan Army and the military.
A group of civilians who were captured and tortured by the military on a boat in April are residents of Kyaukseik village in Ponnagyun township. Nearby villages are often shelled.
