KAREN STATE – Residents stated that a committee member of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) was found dead from a gunshot wound at Yun Salin Creek around 11:00 a.m. last Wednesday (August 16).
Mr. Ba Than, the Hpapun Township executive of the USDP party, went missing after being shot on August 12, and his body appeared four days later in Yun Salin Creek.
“On 12th August, the USDP executive was shot while working in the field. He fell into the creek after being shot and his body was found today,” said a resident.
A person close to the administration said that the deceased was a resident of Takon Taing Village in Hpapun Township. He was shot by a sniper at around 10:00 a.m. on August 12 and fell into Yun Salin Creek. The dead body was found near Wai Mone Village on August 16, around 11 a.m.
Last July 18, there had been three bomb explosions at the USDP office in Ward-1, Hpapun Township that reportedly killed a policeman and injured two other officers. The office building was also destroyed.
In recent days, four USDP members, ward administrators and organizers in Taungoo, Salin, and Yatsauk Townships, were shot and killed.
After the military coup, the officials of the USDP announced that nearly 2,400 members including the former (Hluttaw) parliament representatives and executive members had been killed, but this news about the death tolls could not be independently confirmed by the media.