A seven-year-old girl has been killed in her home after security forces opened fire in Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay – the youngest victim so far in the military’s deadly crackdown against resistance to last month’s coup.
Khin Myo Chit was seated on her father’s lap when soldiers stormed their home on Tuesday and threatened to kill. Two men were also killed in the township.
It is reported that the seven-year-old child had died of bullet wounds in Chan Mya Thazi township on Tuesday.
The military did not issue a an immediate statement on the incident.
The generals also accused pro-democracy demonstrators of vandalism and brutality during the weeks of protests and claimed it was using the least power necessary to quell the regular demonstrations.
On Tuesday, military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun expressed sorrow at the loss of life and claimed 164 demonstrators had been killed in all.
In its March 23 update, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an activist organization monitoring deaths and detentions in post-coup Myanmar, placed the death toll at at least 275, including Khin Myo Chit. The AAPP claimed she died after being shot in the stomach.
Earlier on Monday, a teenage boy – also from Mandalay – was murdered.
Tun Tun Aung was inside his home and was not participating in the protest when he was murdered. The boy was buried on Tuesday.