General says he might have shot Lahu activist several times
“If I were the soldier at the scene, I might have fired several shots,” Third Army Area 3 chief Lt-General Wijak Banpasop said on Thursday regarding the extrajudicial killing of a young Lahu activist.
Last Friday, Chaiyapoom Pasae died of a single gunshot wound at a checkpoint in Chiang Mai province. The soldier who pulled the trigger said he opened fire in self-defence after Chaiyapoom brandished a knife and then a hand grenade.
While Chaiyapoom’s death has caused public uproar, Wijak has said he believed the soldier’s actions were reasonable.
“He just fired one shot at an arm but the bullet happened to be fatal,” Wijak said.
