A group of unknown gunmen shot and killed a captain and a driver from the Karen National Liberation Army on 11 December while they were traveling by car on the Dawei –Ye road near the southern Burmese Township of Ye Byu in Tanintharyi Division.
The KNLA soldiers were from a KNU 4th Brigade battalion.
Padoh Saw Eh Na, joint secretary of the Karen National Union in Megui/Tavoy district confirmed to Karen News that Captain Saw Khin Win and Private Saw Maung Aye were shot dead by gunmen. The gunmen had also robbed a passenger bus before the killing of the KNLA soldiers’. The bus was traveling from Dawei to Yagon at around 6:30pm.
Speaking to Karen News, Padoh Saw Eh Na said:
“ According to the information we received, they [the KNLA soldiers] arrived as the passenger bus was being robbed and while trying to overtake the bus, they were shot and killed.”
Padoh Saw Eh Na said that Captain Saw Khin Win was a second company commander in the No.2 company of Battalion No.10 under the 4th Brigade. He added that Captain Saw Khin Win died on the way to hospital while his driver Private Saw Maung Aye died on the spot at the incident.
KNLA sources said that the incident took place about 80 miles from Dawei Town in an area under the control of both the New Mon State Party and the KNLA. The KNLA source said that the gunmen were believed to be robbers but the KNLA are making more inquiries into the case.
The bodies of the KNLA soldiers were collected from Ye Byu police station by KNLA officials from 4th Brigade.
