Two General Administration Department (GAD) officers were shot and injured by unidentified gunmen in the forests between Huay Zwe and Ner Won village tract in southern Shan State’s Mongpan Township on Tuesday afternoon.  

The shooting happened at around 1:00 p.m. on October 27, and the injured officers—a Langkhur District GAD officer and his deputy—were sent to Taunggyi, Sao San Tun public hospital.   

“There is no village at the location of the incident. It happened in the jungle,” Sai Kyaw Khine, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy’s (SNLD) electoral candidate in Mongpan Township, told SHAN.  

He said that the officers were attacked as they returned from checking on polling stations in villages in Mongpan ahead of Burma’s general election scheduled for November 8.

The SNLD had been preparing to launch their election campaign on Wednesday in Ner Moong village tract, but since hearing about the shooting, have canceled the plan.

“I heard this news [of the shooting] when we went to report to the RCSS [Restoration Council of Shan State] liaison office… The RCSS isn’t allowing us to go to Ner Won,” Sai Kyaw Khine said.

RCSS spokesperson Lt-Col Kham San told SHAN he wasn’t aware of further details about the incident.

The RCSS, Burma Army, police, and ethnic Pa-O armed organizations are active in Mongpan Township.