Aung Htein — An education staffer was shot near Kyauktan village in Sittwe Township, Arakan State, on March 8 and he is being provided medical treatment at Sittwe General Hospital as he suffered a severe abdominal wound, family members said.

Ko Nyi Nyi Zaw, 32, is an attendant of the office of the Ponnagyun Township Education Department and he was shot while traveling between Ponnagyun and Sittwe, said his father U Maung Maung Hla.

“When he returned from Ponnagyun, he was shot from the back. He stopped his motorcycle and phoned me to say he had been shot. When we arrived at the location he said, I saw my son was surrounded by soldiers. He was nearly unconscious,” U Maung Maung Hla said.

“I was worried for him. Now, he can speak a little after injecting medicine and blood,” he said.

Ko Nyi Nyi Zaw has worked for the township education office for three years and he frequently travels between Ponnagyun and Sittwe, family members said.

In an apparent acknowledgement of the incident, the Tatmadaw said in a statement that a motorcycle running from Ponnagyun to Sittwe did not stop at the Kyauktan bridge gate where a team was performing security checks on vehicles, so a member of the team fired a warning shot and the motorcyclist stopped.

The members of the team found that the motorcyclist had a gunshot wound after they inspected him, the statement said.