Arakanese leaders escaped assassination attempt in Malaysia

(Yangon: 7 February 2014) : A delegation led by prominent Arakanese leaders U Aye Tha Aung and Dr Aye Maung faced an assassination attempt in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday but luckily they could escape. Addressing the media in Rangoon today, the surviving leaders recollected the horrible incident that happened in the Malaysian capital on February 5.
The press conference, held at Rakhine state Dhama hall adjacent to Shwedagon pagoda, started at 10.30 am soon after they had arrived back from Malaysia. Mentionable is that the  Arakanese leaders cut short their trip due to the episode.
“The incident took place at around 11 pm on Wednesday, while we were returning to the hotel from a shopping center located at down town Kuala Lumpur,” informed the survivors.
They also mentioned that the assailants used a car and also a motorbike to target them when they were travelling by a BMW vehicle.
The attackers even shot five bullets targeting their vehicle from a close range, but those missed the target.
However the BMW car got damaged it’s beside glasses with the bullets. The glass of the vehicle was totally collapsed, said Dr Aye Maung.

Besides U Aye Tha Aung and Dr Aye Maung, the vehicle also carried some other important Arakanese leaders like U Hla Myint, U San Kyaw Hla, U Kuang San, U Tin Htoo Aung etc during the attack.

The delegation went to Malaysia to attend a program with the invitation from Arakan Refugee Relief Committee (ARRC).
The surviving Arakanese leaders suspected that some Burma born Muslims were behind the attack, who wanted to eliminate them, said Aye Tha Aung in the press conference adding that they had already lodged an FIR in a police station of Kuala Lumpur after the incident.