Two masked gunmen entered St. Patrick Catholic Church in the city of Mohnyin, Myanmar, on Friday morning throughout companies and fired a volley of bullets on the parish priest, Father Paul Hkwi Shane Aung. Aung was hit 3 times however survived the assault.
An eyewitness mentioned the priest had simply completed studying a passage from the Bible when the gunmen stormed in and opened hearth.
“They wore black caps and masks. They fired once while entering through the church door, and then again when they reached the center of the church. Then they approached him and fired a third time,” the witness mentioned.
Another witness mentioned the assailants arrived on a motorbike and used the identical means to flee. The gunmen remained at giant as of Friday afternoon.
Father Aung, 40, was struck by bullets in his jaw, hand, and thigh. He was evacuated to a hospital in Mohnyin for emergency medical remedy and later transferred to a hospital in the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina.
An activist in Kachin state told Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News) on Friday that “anti-social elements are fomenting religious and ethnic conflict as the civil war in the military-ruled nation has entered a critical phase.”
The main conflict in the realm is between the ruling navy junta and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a paramilitary alliance of six native tribes.
The KIA is the simplest and battle-tested group to withstand Myanmar’s navy authorities, having captured dozens of navy outposts and two main navy bases because it launched a significant offensive with a number of allied ethnic militias final October.
The junta’s panicked response included some artillery shells that sailed proper over the border into China, prompting strong objections from the regime in Beijing.
The junta additionally seems to be taking out its anger on church buildings and pastors, because the authorities is basically composed of ethnic Burmans who observe Buddhism, whereas most of the rebellious tribes have Christian populations. About a 3rd of the inhabitants in Kachin is Christian.
Myanmar has suffered a number of navy coups because it grew to become impartial in 1948, and every junta tended to scapegoat Catholics as disloyal.
Other Christians have suffered repression as nicely. On March 18, a Baptist pastor named Nammye Hkun Jaw Li was gunned down by unknown assailants whereas working in the pc store he owned in Kachin state. Li was an outspoken critic of the navy authorities and a protest organizer.
“They shot him in his stomach twice, and when he did not die, they also shot him in the head,” mentioned a supply near Li’s household.
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