Muslim advocate shot dead in Myanmar,

Joint Statement on the assassination of U Ko Ni

YANGON, Jan 29 — A prominent Muslim lawyer and member of Myanmar’s ruling party was shot dead along with a taxi driver outside Yangon’s international airport today, officials said.

Ko Ni, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, was gunned down as he got into a taxi outside arrivals around 5pm (1030GMT) by an assassin who also killed the driver.

“According to our initial information, Ko Ni and the taxi driver were killed,” a security source at the airport told AFP, asking not to be named. The taxi driver was died while he was arrested the shooter.

“According to sources, the shooter is from Mandalay and namely U Kyi Linn". Some sources said he is an Army officer and some said a criminal of jailed for other cases.

Zaw Htay, a spokesman at the president’s office, said Ko Ni had just returned from a government delegation trip to Indonesia.

“He (Ko Ni) was shot while he was waiting for a car outside the airport. Ko Ni died on the spot,” he told AFP.

There are some social media report that "Myanmar Army, MaBaTha and Rakhine leaders are behind the assassination. 

Reportedly, the leader of delegation was not satisfied and irate with U Ko Ni as he has explained about Rakhine issue in Indonesia correctly as happening there.

Myanmar’s border regions have simmered for decades with ethnic minority insurgencies.

Yet it is rare for prominent political figures to be murdered in Yangon, the country’s booming and largely safe commercial hub.

But in recent years Myanmar has witnessed a surge of anti-Muslim sentiment, fanned by hardline Buddhist nationalists.

Ko Ni, a longtime member of the NLD and legal advisor to the party, often spoke out in favour of religious tolerance and pluralism.

In late 2015 Suu Kyi’s NLD party won a landslide election victory, ending decades of military led rule.

Joint Statement on the assassination of U Ko Ni