Lin Latt Shwe, 6, was detained along with her mother and other suspects in the killing of a retired general in Yangon.
Security forces in Myanmar have arrested a six-year-old girl, along with 15 other people suspected of involvement in the assassination of a retired army officer last month, state-run media report.
The 16 suspects – 13 males and three females – were arrested in four different regions of the country late last month, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said on Friday.
Those arrested include Lin Latt Shwe, the six-year-old daughter of the alleged assassin, Myo Ko Ko, who was reported to have at least three other aliases. The newspaper report said the child and her parents were arrested in the central city of Bagan.
A little-known armed group calling itself the Golden Valley Warriors claimed responsibility for killing retired Brigadier General Cho Tun Aung, 68, who was shot outside his home in Yangon, the country’s commercial capital, on May 22.
Other detainees include the owner of a private hospital, which is alleged to have provided treatment to the assassin, who, according to the newspaper report, suffered a gunshot wound during the attack.
Independent news outlet The Irrawaddy said the Golden Valley Warriors have denied that the 16 people detained were part of their operation.
Since the coup and the outbreak of the civil war in Myanmar, targeted assassinations have been carried out against high-ranking active and retired military officers, as well as senior civil servants, local officials, business associates of the ruling generals and suspected informers.
Soon after carrying out the assassination, the Golden Valley Warriors said in a statement posted on Facebook that Cho Tun Aung had been teaching internal security and counterterrorism at Myanmar’s National Defence College and was, by his actions, complicit in atrocities committed by the military in the ongoing civil war.
