Gunmen shoot Myanmar priest while he celebrates Mass

Unknown assailants gunned down and seriously injured a priest while celebrating morning Mass in Myanmar’s conflict-stricken northern Kachin state on April 12. Two men opened fire on  40-year-old Father Paul Khwi Shane Aung, parish priest of St. Patrick’s Church in Mohnyin town under Myitkyina diocese, at 6:30 a.m, according to Church sources.

“They were wearing black clothes and masks and entered the church on a motorcycle to shoot the priest three times,” U Zaw, a local catechist, told to News agencies. The motive behind the attack is not yet known.

Zaw said the injured priest was rushed to a hospital in Mohnyin and was later moved to a hospital in Myitkyina, the state capital. The attack came nearly a month after 47-year-old Nammye Hkun Jaw Li,  a pastor with the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), was shot dead at his computer shop in Mogaung township on March 18.

The killers are still at large. An activist based in Kachin state said anti-social elements are fomenting religious and ethnic conflict as the civil war in the military-ruled nation has entered a critical phase.