Police accidentally killed a scavenger in a jade mine owned by Tit Thone Lone Company in Hpakant on February 4, sources said.

Witnesses said many scavengers were queuing to enter the jade mine from two gates. While scavengers from one gate entered in the compound, police fired warning shots toward scavengers from other gate by the police and a bullet hit the deceased in his head.

He was sent to Lonekhin station hospital and died in the afternoon.

Zaw Moe Htet, one of the witnesses said, “When we arrived at the hospital, he hasn’t died. He had been married for only two months. The couple lives in Lonekhin and his previous job was to cut and polish stones. He has been working as a scavenger for a month now.”

There are thousands of scavengers in the area and the situation is likely to grow more out of control, said a scavenger from Saiyar Village.

“The police fired a warning shot at the group of scavengers and four or five warning shots in the air. One of the shot hit him,” said the scavenger.

Zaw Moe Htet said, “The jade mines are shut down one after another and the scavengers have little amount of reliable sources left. So they have to enter some jade mines to make a living. There are about 3,000 scavengers in the jade mine owned by Tit Thone Lone Company. This kind of accident happens frequently.”

There are more than 40 cases of conflicts happened between security forces and scavengers after 2016 and the worst incident occurred on October 18 2017. A total of five scavengers were killed in the incident and 25 people including policemen were injured in the chaos.