An eight-month-old child was fatally injured when two village administrators were killed in a gun attack in Ywartharyar Village, in Bago Region’s Htantabin Township, on 17 January at 11:00 a.m.

U Soe Naing, who had been the Ywartharyar Village Administrator for about a year, and U Khin Maung Win, the previous Ywartharyar Village Administrator were travelling by car when they were chased by unknown gunmen on motorcycles.

U Khin Maung Win stopped the car and ran away, the gunmen chased him down and shot him. Unfortunately, Maung Bhone Thura Naing, an eight-month-old baby who was in the vicinity, was hit in the head by a stray bullet.

A local witness said: “The two administrators were returning from Taungoo Town in Bago Region Ywartharyar Village. Unknown gunmen on motorcycles chased and shot at them while they were near the Ywartharyar Village Road. After a bullet hit Administrator U Soe Naing, U Khin Maung Win pulled over and ran to the nearest house. Whilst the gunmen were chasing I heard someone scream that a child had been hit. The mother and child had been standing by the road.”

The witness explained that the child had been between the gunmen and the house U Khin Maung Win had run into. The gunmen subsequently killed U Khin Maung Win in the house.

Baby Maung Bhone Thura Naing was in a critical condition after the shooting, so he was taken to Htantabin Hospital and then to Taungoo Hospital. He could not receive adequate treatment there, so it was decided to take him to the 1,000-bed Naypyitaw Hospital, but he died before he got there.

Maung Bhone Thura Naing's family had only relocated to Ywartharyar Village last year. They had been forced by fighting to move from their home in Meetaingtaw Village, also in Htantabin Township.

Following the incident, junta police officers and soldiers investigated the site of the shooting.

No organisation has yet claimed responsibility for the shootings.