Mizzima

Myanmar junta-supporting singer Lily Naing Kyaw was shot in the head and seriously injured in her car outside her house in Yangon at about 7:00 p.m. on 30 May.

According to initial reports, the 58-year-old singer died in hospital, but subsequent reports from junta-affiliated sources claim she is alive but seriously injured.

“She was assassinated by an urban guerrilla force. The junta has confirmed that the shooting incident depicted in the photo [of Lily Naing Kyaw in her car after being shot] is real,” a source said to Mizzima.

According to sources, Lily Naing Kyaw was shot in her right cheek whilst in her Nissan Pino car in front of her house in Yankin Township in Yangon City.

“It seems like she had returned from being out and was shot before she could enter her house. She did not die on the spot and was taken to a hospital,” said a resident of Yankin Township.

Lily Naing Kyaw is a singer who frequently voiced her support in public for the military, appeared at junta-organised events and has close ties to high-ranking members of the junta. She has also been accused of being a junta informant who passed important information about defence forces to the junta. 

Previously, she filmed people in her area protesting against the junta by banging pots and pans and handed the footage to the army who came to the area and arrested those who had been banging pots.

Youths from Yankin Township involved with revolutionary forces were also arrested following complaints made by Lily Naing Kyaw to the junta.

Eighteen pro-junta organisations have criticised the attack.