Two killed, three wounded in Mrauk-U shooting

By Admin 13 Nov 2023

DMG Newsroom
13 November 2023, Mrauk-U

Two people were killed and three others were injured after a civilian vehicle and a three-wheeled motorbike were attacked in Mrauk-U, Arakan State, on the morning of November 13, according to local social organisations.

The vehicle and three-wheeled motorbike were fired upon in Myinkhontan Ward at an entrance to Mrauk-U and two out of four people in the civilian vehicle were killed on the spot, while two others were seriously wounded, according to the Garuna Hlaine Blood Donors Association in Mrauk-U.

The two injured are currently receiving medical treatment at Tin Nyo Hospital and the bodies of the deceased were sent to the hospital’s morgue, said an official from the association.

“The exact identity of the two deceased is not yet known. One of the injured is reportedly from Yangon’s Hlaingthayar Township,” the official added.

One of the injured has been identified as U Hlaing Chay, a three-wheeled motorbike driver from Shwe Htee Hsaung IDP camp in Mrauk-U Township, according to his wife.

“He was shot near Danyawadi petrol station while heading to the outskirts of Mrauk-U. He sustained a gunshot wound to his left knee. His condition is considered not life-threatening. He was hospitalised to get X-rays,” said Daw Htwe Nu Aye, the wife of U Hlaing Chay.

The shooting in Mrauk-U came on the same day that fighting between the military and Arakan Army (AA) flared anew in Arakan State’s Rathedaung and Minbya townships.

As with much of Monday’s happenings in Arakan State, a fog-of-war atmosphere prevailed as a Telegram account supporting the military junta stated that plainclothes AA troops had opened fire on a military vehicle on patrol in Mrauk-U Township, purportedly resulting in the killing of one AA soldier in return fire. Local residents in contrast described the incident as a case of indiscriminate shooting by junta soldiers, with the military blocking the entry and exit of Mrauk-U town.

Myanmar’s military regime on Monday closed security checkpoints and blockaded roads and waterways across Arakan State as clashes between the junta and the AA resumed.

“Grocery owners are reluctant to sell a lot of food items to buyers and some shops are closed. Some parents of students pulled their children [from school] and Mrauk-U’s situation is worrying,” said a local woman in the town’s Taungyat Ward.

A local man from Phetharpyin Village, Minbya Township, was severely injured by a Myanmar military artillery shell fired in response to an AA ambush of a military convoy travelling along the Yangon-Sittwe road on Monday.

The Myanmar military and the AA observed an informal ceasefire on humanitarian grounds in late November 2022. The resumption of hostilities began when the ethnic armed group launched attacks on Border Guard Force outposts near Rathedaung Township’s Cheinkharlein and Donpaik villages on Monday morning.

The hostilities in Rathedaung and Minbya townships were expected by many amid speculation that a “western front” to the anti-junta armed resistance movement might open in Arakan State after the Three Brotherhood Alliance, of which the AA is a member, launched an offensive late last month in Shan State, with the stated aim of toppling Myanmar’s military regime.