NAYPYITAW, 17 August 2021, (TON): A man was seriously injured after he and his 4-year-year son were shot by regime troops in a village in Chin State’s Kanpetlet Township.

The incident occurred at around 11am, when soldiers patrolling Kant Thar Yon, a village about a mile outside the town of Kanpetlet, opened fired near the man’s house.

Thirty-year-old Thang Htong and his son Naing Thang were both inside their home when they were hit by stray bullets, according to a member of the Kanpetlet Township Public Administration Committee, a civilian management group set up by opponents of Myanmar’s military junta.

Thang Htong was hit in the arm, thigh and abdomen and was taken to a public hospital in the city of Magway, about 250km away, with serious injuries. The child was not badly hurt, locals told media.

Residents of the village said the shooting was unprovoked.

One Kanpetlet resident who spoke to villagers who arrived on the scene shortly after the incident, said “the soldiers said they were shooting at a suspicious-looking man on a motorcycle, but it seems more like they were just firing shots at random.”