Sagaing Region’s Pinlebu Township Union Solidarity and Development Party chairman and former MP U Win Thein was shot and killed on November 30 morning, according to local sources.  

U Thein Win was sitting together with two local residents at a tea shop in front Pinlebu Police Station at about 7.30am when they were shot by some unidentified men. He and another man died at the scene and another was sent to hospital.

“Before 8am, we heard three gunshots and a bomb explosion. We knew later that Pinlebu Township USDP chairman U Win Thein died after being shot. The tea shop he sat is near the police station and the party office. He used to sit at that tea shop. All the three were shot. Two died at the scene and one was sent to hospital,” said a local resident.

After the shootings, security forces arrived at the scene and made inspections, locals said.

U Win Thein became a member of parliament after winning a seat in the 2010 general election. He also ran for the 2020 election but was defeated by a candidate from the National League for Democracy.

There was fighting between the locally formed PDF (People’s Defence Force) and security forces in Pinlebu Township in October, local people said.