A former village official in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township was shot dead by an unknown assailant on Tuesday.
Bhi Ahmad, a former official from the village of Phawutchaung, was gunned down while attending a village meeting, according to Khin Maung Than, a member of the Arakan National Party in Maungdaw.
“Residents of the village informed me by phone that U Bhi Ahmad was attending a village meeting at around 9am when two men came by on a motorbike and shot him. He apparently died on the spot,” Khin Maung Than told DVB.
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“He was formerly an official in the village’s administration before the [2015 elections] and was just joining the meeting as a local resident. The shooters apparently also made threats against the new village administrator, U Tun Tun Win.”
According to Khin Maung Than, both the victim and the killers were “Bengalis” — the term used by many in Burma to refer to the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group living mainly in northern Arakan State, near the border with Bangladesh.
Khin Maung Than said the village is under the jurisdiction of a Border Guard Force and the authorities will be investigating the case.