Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan

On February 14, 2008 at about 4:30pm in the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand, Sha Lah Phan was sitting in the veranda of his home when two gunmen approached him bearing gifts, which were reportedly fruit baskets. One attacker shot Phan twice in the chest while the second gunman shot him as he lay on the ground. The attackers escaped in a pick-up truck. His house was approximately five kilometres from the Thai-Burmese border. He died instantly and was reportedly 64 years old at the time of his death.

Phan had predicted an increase in violence ahead of a Burmese constitutional referendum in May 2008, in an interview with Reuters the week of his death. His adopted son, Say Say Phan, blamed a Karen splinter group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), for carrying out the attack on behalf of the Burmese military rulers.

In 2005, Phan allowed two Burmese children posing as refugees to stay in his house at Noh Poe. The children were really child soldiers who were sent to assassinate both him and Zoya; however, before they could carry out their plan, they admitted their real reason for coming to him. In return, he permitted them to stay at Noh Poe to prevent them from being forced back into the Burmese army.

The KNU, through its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, has been fighting against the Burmese government for autonomy for the Karen people since 1949. It operates in both Burma and Thailand. He served as the Secretary-General of the KNU. Sha Lah Phan was against any form of surrender to the Burmese government.

Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan (Burmese: ဖဒိုမန်းရှာလာဖန်း, Western Pwo: ၦဒိၪမၩ့ၡၪလၩဖၩ့; July 5, 1943 – February 14, 2008) was the secretary general of the Karen National Union (KNU), an insurgent group in Myanmar.