Three armed assailants killed a teacher who was part of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against the junta during a raid on her home in the Sagaing Region town of Homalin on Sunday evening.

The attackers shot May Hnin Aye, who was around 30 years old, in her arm, leg and chest while she was sitting on the balcony of the house, which she shared with several other family members.

May Hnin Aye lived at the house with her husband, their one-year-old son, her husband’s parents and her brother-in-law, a local protest leader named Kyaw Win Sein who was the only one not home at the time of the attack because he went into hiding in August.

During the attack, which started at around 6pm, the assailants shot the front of the house before storming inside and shooting at the family members as they ran away, Kyaw Win Sein said, adding that they did not hit anyone besides May Hnin Aye.

He told Myanmar Now that he believed the assailants were plainclothes soldiers as they seemed to be adept at handling their weapons. The attack on Kyaw Win Sein’s family home came just hours after an alleged military informant named Maung Mawt was shot dead in Homalin.

“I think they took out their anger on our family after their informant got killed,” Kyaw Win Sein said. “The problem is that we didn’t even know that person. We’ve only seen his photo online. Also, my family had already disowned me. This was just senseless and cruel.”

Kyaw Win Sein’s parents issued a public announcement in August that he had been disowned in a bid to prevent the family from being targeted. “Our family also received multiple threats before this incident,” Kyaw Win Sein said. “They even torched our family’s convenience store.”

The family’s shop in Homalin market was burned down on October 18.

An officer on duty at the Homalin central police station refused to comment on the killing of May Hnin Aye.

Fighting has been escalating across Sagaing Region as the junta deploys thousands of troops to upper Myanmar in preparation for what are expected to be large clearance operations aimed at wiping out resistance fighters.

Although Homalin is small, it is home to several military bases, including that of the 222nd Infantry Battalion, the 359th and 370th Light Infantry Battalions, and the Homalin Air Base.