Kaung Zarni Hein and Kyaw Thura, two men accused of murdering the singer Lily Naing Kyaw, were shot dead as they allegedly tried to escape police custody.

According to an 8 July post on a junta Telegram social media channel, the two were shot dead in Maung Makan Road in North Dagon Township, Yangon, after the authorities took them there to look for weapons and explosives they had hidden. According to the post, the men were shot and died on the spot when they pushed the security forces accompanying them and tried to run away.

This version of events is disputed by members of local defence forces.

An officer from a Yangon urban guerrilla force said: “It is a rumour that they [the authorities] asked the two of them to reveal the secret place [where they had hidden weapons]. They made up this rumour because things had got out of hand. We don’t yet know exactly where our colleagues died. I think both of them may have died as a result of being inhumanely tortured by the Military Council at an interrogation centre.”

Kaung Zarni Hein and Kyaw Thura were arrested in Kamaryut Township and accused of murdering Lily Naing Kyaw on 30 May 2023 and being members of the Special Task Force (STF) defence force, according to a 6 June statement by the junta regime.

A few hours after the statement was released, Kaung Zani Hein's mother, Daw Thae Malar Win, and his sister, Song Thazin Oo, were both shot dead at their home in Yangon Region’s Htantapin Township, by members of the junta-aligned Pyu Saw Htee militia, on the evening of 6 June.

Lily Naing Kyaw was a singer who was infamous for being a military supporter and nationalist activist. She was shot outside her house in Yangon’s Yankin Township on 30 May and died from her injuries in hospital one week later. Her funeral was held at a military hospital on a military base in Mingaladon Township in Yangon.

There has been no comment from STF to say whether Kaung Zarni Hein and Kyaw Thura were associated with the organisation.