A seven-year-old girl was shot dead in Myanmar, becoming the youngest victim since the fighting since last month’s military coup. It happened in Mandalay, the second most important city in Myanmar. Khin Myo Chit’s family told the Bbc that the little girl was killed by the police as she ran towards her father during a search inside the house in a suburb of the city.
“They kicked the door to open it. Once inside they asked my father if there were other people inside and he said no. At this point they accused him of lying, starting to search the house, ”he told the Bbc May Thu Sumaya, older sister of the young victim. Adding that “when Khin Myo Chit ran to meet her father to sit on his knee, they shot her, hitting her.”
The local newspaper Myanmar Now ha written that the military broke into their house, in the suburb of Chan Mya Thazi, and fired at the father, instead hitting the girl who was in the man’s arms. The 19-year-old brother was arrested.
The Myanmar military has increased the use of force as protests continue. The rights group Save the Children he said more than 20 children are among the dozens of people who have been killed. And at least 261 people died in the repression of demonstrators and activists against the coup on February 1st.
But dissidents, to avoid brutal police repression, are looking for new forms of protest. For today, the civil disobedience movement has organized a silence strike: everyone at home, shops closed, and no vehicles in the streets. In the meantime, more than 600 activists have been released in Myanmar, the majority of them students, arrested in protests triggered by the coup last February.