A 43-year-old woman was fatally shot at her home in southern Shan State’s Lawksawk Township by an as-yet unidentified gunman this week, with the motive for the murder unknown.

Nang Kham Sein had returned to her house in Nawng Woe village on Sunday evening from her paddy field when a gunman—believed by eyewitnesses to be in his 20s—entered the house’s compound and shot her four times. She was pronounced dead at the scene.  

“A bullet hit her chest. Other bullets hit her right arm, her thigh and her abdomen,” Sai Nawng, a relative of Nang Kham Sein, told SHAN. 

Her body was submitted to Lawksawk hospital for an autopsy, and she was cremated at around 4:00 p.m. on Monday. 

Sai Nawng said that family members have speculated that the murder might be connected to complications surrounding finances, but that they did not know why anyone would want to kill Nang Kham Sein. 

She is survived by her husband Sai Ba Thein, three children, and four siblings. 

Police said that they would continue their investigation, only revealing that the bullets found at the crime scene were not the type of ammunition typically used by the military. 

“Gunmen are trying to shoot civilians, including monks. The situation is really worrying. I feel that I am not safe here,” a Lawksawk resident Sai Than told SHAN following the shooting. 

In Kyaukme Township, north of Lawksawk, there have been multiple unresolved shootings, including the assassination of three village heads in broad daylight earlier this month. There have also been shootings at those driving cattle trucks, and a monk was assassinated in the township in October of last year.