A prominent Muslim lawyer and member of Myanmar’s ruling party has been shot dead along with a taxi driver outside Yangon’s international airport, officials say. In late 2015 Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party won a landslide election victory, ending decades of military led rule. But in what analysts widely saw as a sop to Buddhist hardliners, the party fielded no Muslim candidates, despite boasting many prominent Muslim figures in its ranks. Aung San Suu Kyi has also faced international censure for her failure to criticise an ongoing army crackdown against the Muslim Rohingya minority in western Rakhine state. The treatment of the Rohingya, a stateless group denied citizenship in Myanmar, has galvanised anger across the Muslim world.

Source: The Guardian January 29, 2017 14:15 UTC