Ward administrator and sister shot dead in downtown Mandalay

A ward administrator and her sister were shot dead in Mandalay’s Aungmyaythazan Township on Tuesday morning, according to local sources. Phyo Thanda Aung, the administrator of May Ga Gi Ri Ward, was gunned down as she arrived by car at the corner of 18th and 82nd streets. Her sister, Khin Phone Su, died at Mandalay General Hospital, a resident of the township told Myanmar Now. “Both of them have passed away. Daw Phyo Thanda Aung died instantly in the car. Her sister died at the hospital. They were shot by two young men on a motorcycle as they were leaving after buying goat meat,” said the local resident. Phyo Thanda Aung suffered a gunshot wound near her right eye, while Khin Phone Su was hit in the back of the head. After the military coup in 2021, some ward administrators in Aungmyaythazan Township resigned, including the administrator of May Ga Gi Ri Ward. Phyo Thanda Aung reportedly approached military officers to request the vacant position, according to locals. A junta announcement dated August 14, 2021, listed her as the administrator of the ward. As ward administrator, Phyo Thanda Aung allegedly led arrests of suspected anti-junta residents, extorted money under the pretext of enforcing overnight guest registration rules, and recruited new soldiers for the military, the locals said. These activities are typical of junta-appointed ward and village administrators across the country. Arrests often lead to torture, imprisonment, or even death, while recruited soldiers are sent to the front lines soon after training. Phyo Thanda Aung was shot only a five-minute walk from the city’s iconic moated walls, within which the junta’s Central Military Command is situated. Generation Z Power, an urban guerrilla group based in Mandalay, claimed responsibility for the shooting in a statement posted on their Facebook page on Tuesday night. Founded a month after the military seized power in February 2021, the group primarily engages in underground anti-junta activities in Mandalay. On its second anniversary, the group received a letter of recognition from the Ministry of Defence of the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG) in recognition of its efforts to oppose the dictatorship. The policies of the NUG’s Ministry of Home Affairs include preventing the regime from establishing its rule over the country and employing various means to dismantle its administrative mechanism. Aung Myo Min, the NUG’s minister for human rights, told media outlets in November 2021 that the shadow government was drafting a code of conduct regarding the killing of regime informants and junta-appointed administrators.

Ward administrator and sister shot dead in downtown Mandalay

The shooting occurred in the heart of the city, near the headquarters of the regime’s Central Military Command

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