YANGON — The killing of a top Muslim lawyer and adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi who was gunned down outside Yangon airport was a political assassination and a “terrorist act,” Myanmar’s ruling party said on Monday.
Ko Ni, a legal adviser to the National League for Democracy, was shot in the head on Sunday afternoon as he waited outside the airport while holding his grandson.
A dramatic photo circulating on social media showed the moment the gunman, standing behind him, took aim.
Police have not said what prompted the killing. But Ko Ni was a prominent Muslim figure who spoke out against the anti-Muslim sentiments of Buddhist hard-liners and criticized the powerful military’s grip on power.
A taxi driver who tried to stop the gunman was also shot dead before the unidentified attacker was arrested.
Ko Ni had just returned from a government delegation visit to Indonesia where regional leaders were discussing sectarian tensions in Rakhine state.
Myanmar’s army has waged a crackdown on the mainly Muslim Rohingya community which has prompted tens of thousands of them to flee the state.
Ko Ni had previously criticized religious laws pushed by Buddhist nationalists.
In a statement the NLD described him as a key aide to de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saying he was “irreplacable.”
“We strongly denounce the assassination of Ko Ni like this as it is a terrorist act against the NLD’s policies,” the statement said.
The 63-year-old was a veteran member of the party which doggedly resisted decades of military rule to sweep the 2015 elections that brought Suu Kyi to power.
