ALA denies involvement in shooting death of Sittwe man

By DMG 24 Jun 2021

DMG Newsroom

24 June 2021, Sittwe 

The Arakan Liberation Army (ALA) said Thursday that it was not its fault that a man was shot dead in Sittwe recently. 

An ALA official said the ALA was in no way involved in the incident, pushing back on rumours circulating on social media. 

“We have questioned all our comrades in Sittwe and all the former comrades associated with us. And our comrades are confident that this issue has nothing to do with us, as no one was going out on the day of the incident,” an ALA statement said. 

U Nyunt Soe Aung aka U Me Kalaung, 52, a resident of Ywar Gyi Mrauk Ward in Sittwe, was shot dead by an unidentified group of gunmen while in the ward on the evening of June 19. 

The ALA statement said the ethnic armed group and their families were saddened by the death of U Nyunt Soe Aung, who worked as a carpenter in the Arakan State capital. 

“The Arakan Liberation Army will do its utmost to bring to justice” for the deceased, the statement said. 

Violent crime is not unheard of in Sittwe.  

Maung Maung Than, a police sergeant, was stabbed to death by two unidentified men in June of last year. U Thein Hlaing, the administrator of Sittwe’s Setyonsu Ward, was stabbed to death by four unidentified men while he was buying betel quid at a shop in Maw Leik Ward on May 25, 2020. 

No one was arrested in connection with either of those incidents, two of several violent crimes that have gone unsolved in the Arakan State capital.