MYITKYINA (UCAN): Unknown assailants gunned down and seriously injured Father Paul Khwi Shane Aung, while he was celebrating morning Mass in Myanmar’s conflict-stricken northern Kachin state on April 12.
Two men opened fire on the 40-year-old parish priest of St. Patrick’s Church in Mohnyin town in the Diocese of Myitkyina, at 6:30am, according to Church sources.
“They were wearing black clothes and masks and entered the church on a motorcycle to shoot the priest three times,” U Zaw, a local catechist, recounted. The motive behind the attack is not yet known.
Zaw said the injured priest was rushed to a hospital in Mohnyin and was later moved to a hospital in Myitkyina, the state capital.
The attack came nearly a month after 47-year-old Nammye Hkun Jaw Li, a pastor with the Kachin Baptist Convention, was shot dead at his computer shop in Mogaung township on March 18.
The killers are still at large.
An activist based in Kachin state said anti-social elements are fomenting religious and ethnic conflict as the civil war in the military-ruled nation has entered a critical phase.
Ethnic rebel group, the Kachin Independence Army, has seized several key military bases and outposts since it started an offensive on March 3. Lwalje, a key border trade town near the Chinese border is currently under its control.
“We need to be vigilant. The [shooting] incidents show warning signs,” the activist said on April 12.
Clergy, pastors and Church-run institutions are being targeted by the military, which toppled the civilian government in February 2021, for supporting the rebels.
