Two members of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) have been killed in as many days in Mandalay, both on suspicion of acting as military informants.
On Thursday, a 50-year-old former ward administrator named Myo Myint was shot dead at around 11am in Aye Thukha ward, located in Mandalay’s Maha Aungmyay Township.
According to a resident of the area, the killing took place near the ward’s Thidar Yone monastery.
“It was just a single gunshot to the head. He died on the spot. A social service vehicle came to pick up his body,” said the local, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A Mandalay-based resistance group called Generation Z Power (GZP) claimed responsibility for the assassination.
“We had been informed that he was providing intelligence to the military. That’s why we decided to kill him. We will continue to take further actions against anyone who has ties with the military council,” said a member of GZP.
The group said it was also responsible for the killing of another ward administrator in Maha Aungmyay Township on Wednesday afternoon.
Haymamarla ward administrator Hlaing Maung Win, 50, was riding a motorcycle when he was shot in the head and neck as he approached the No. 9 police station, a witness told Myanmar Now.
“He stopped moving right after he was shot,” the witness said.
According to the witness, who is a resident of the area, Hlaing Maung Win was well-known for his pro-military stance.
“He was a USDP member and the main military informant in our ward. My own brothers didn’t dare come home because of him. He also got several other people arrested,” he said.
Myanmar Now was unable to contact the victims’ families or confirm allegations that they were acting as military informants.
GZP, which also carried out a number of similar attacks in Mandalay last month, vowed to continue targeting those it regards as regime collaborators and urged members of the public to cooperate with its efforts.
“We would like to ask civilians to stay away from the junta forces to avoid interfering with our missions against them,” said a GZP member who asked not to be identified by name.
Urban guerrilla groups such as GZP emerged in Mandalay and other major cities around Myanmar following brutal crackdowns on non-violent protests that swept the country in the wake of the February 1 coup.
Their primary targets have been alleged military informants and others seen as assisting the regime’s attempts to consolidate its control.
Members of the USDP, which is seen as the military’s proxy party, are frequently targeted. According to statement released by the party in early September, 253 of its members had been killed over the preceding seven-month period.
On Thursday, junta-controlled state media reported that the regime had arrested members of underground resistance groups in Mandalay.
