by Ko Wild
Monday, 20 July 2009 21:01
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – In a sensational killing, a father and his son were shot dead in Tachileik of eastern Shan State on Sunday, local residents said.
Local sources said, a gunman on Sunday afternoon shot dead Li Shauk Wei a.k.a. Sai Lone (52) and his son Sai Htun Hla (29) with 9 mm pistols in their residence on Pone Tun Street in Pone Tun Ward of Tachileik.
“U Aik Lone a.k.a. Sai Lone was the owner of San Yay Drinking Water Company and lived in Pone Tun Ward. The armed man barged into his residence and killed him at about 1 p.m. His son came out on hearing the gun shots when the gunman was leaving after killing his father. The assailants shot dead the son too,” a local resident of Tachileik told Mizzima on Monday.
But when contacted, an official at the Tachileik police station said, “If you are from news agency, you better ask people from the locality,” and refused to divulge anything.
A local resident, quoting eyewitnesses said, the armed man came in a car accompanied by a woman to the victims’ house, located at the corner of the 4th Lane on Pone Tun Street.
Despite of the local authority efforts to keep the double murder case under wraps, locals speculates that it could have a link to drug trafficking.
“Rumours spreading says that the gunman came to collect money owed by the victims, who were into drug trafficking. They posed as Shan-Chinese and Wa -- dominating the drug trade. They used a car with a Wa organization logo. But they changed the license plates,” the local resident said.
In a similar case, the Pone Tun Ward Secretary Kan Myint was murdered in broad daylight about four years ago. Local residents claimed that though the type of car used by the gunmen and the license plate number were known, the culprits are still at large.
Tachileik town is located on the Thai-Burmese border and is infamous for cross-border trade, human and drug trafficking.
On July 10, over 2,100 compressed heroin blocks (more than 700 kilograms) and 340,000 Amphetamine-type Stimulant (ATS) tablets hidden in a six-wheeled Nissan Truck were seized at the Lwe Taw Hkam joint checkpoint in Tachileik, Burma’s state-run newspaper, New Light of Myanmar reported on July 16.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
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