Myanmar’s regime said it is investigating the death of a 78-year-old monk amid eyewitness reports his vehicle was fired on by junta troops.
Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa, 78, a retired member of the State Sangha Nayaka Committee, the highest Buddhist authority in Myanmar, was shot dead on Wednesday near Tada-U Airport in Mandalay Region.
Junta media said resistance groups fired on his car in an ambush, injuring fellow monk Sayadaw Bhaddanta Gunikabhivamsa, the abbot of Kanthonhsint Buddhism Learning Center in Mingaladon Township, Yangon, and the driver U Kyaw Win.
On Thursday, Bhaddanta Gunikabhivamsa said they were shot by junta soldiers from a truck that chased their vehicle.
He said junta soldiers fired seven or eight shots at their car and he suffered head injuries from broken glass.
“I got out of the car and asked why they were attacking monks. They said they did not know we were monks as our windows were shut. They took our phones and told us not to tell anyone,” the monk said.
The regime claimed an online video clip of Bhaddanta Gunikabhivamsa contradicted the junta media’s account of the incident, adding that it would investigate.
Bhaddanta Gunikabhivamsa’s account matched a report by the chief of the Mandalay Region Religious Affairs Department to his director-general in Naypyitaw which said the vehicle was driven away after troops told it to pull over.
Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa wrote numerous books on Buddhist teachings.
The two monks flew to Tada-U Airport from Yangon on Wednesday to attend a meeting on Thursday at the Shwekyin Nikaya Center in Mandalay.
