YANGON - Tens of thousands of people gathered in Yangon on Monday for the funeral of Ko Ni, a Muslim lawyer shot dead the previous day who was involved in efforts to amend a military drafted constitution.
The 63-year-old was an expert in constitutional law and adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) Party, that came to power in April. He was also a prominent member of Myanmar's Muslim minority.
His killing, amid heightened communal and religious tension in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, appears to be a rare act of political violence in the former capital that coincided with a tough security operation in a northwestern region populated mostly by Muslims.
Police have arrested a 53-year-old man, suspected to be the lone gunman who shot Ko Ni in the head while the lawyer held his grandson outside Yangon's international airport on Sunday evening.
He had just returned from a trip to Indonesia, where Myanmar government officials and Muslim community leaders discussed with Indonesian counterparts issues of reconciliation.
Taxi driver Nay Win, 42, was also killed when he attempted to apprehend the gunman, state media reported.
Pol Col Myo Thu Soe told Reuters the suspect, Kyi Linn, was from central Myanmar's Yinmabin township who has served two stints in jail for trafficking religious antiques.
Kyi Linn was last released in a 2014 amnesty by then-president Thein Sein, he said, adding that the suspect had not given clear answers during interrogation.
"We cannot say exactly why he killed or who was behind him," Pol Col Myo Thu Soe said.
Reuters was unable to contact Kyi Linn's family for comment and it was not clear if he had legal representation.
An estimated 100,000 mourners, including family members, lawyers, NLD activists and members of Yangon's diplomatic corps, attended Ko Ni's funeral beginning at a Muslim cemetery in northern Yangon.
Suu Kyi was not in attendance and has yet to comment on the killing. Her party said on Sunday Ko Ni's death was "a great loss for which there is no substitute".