At least five people shot dead during anti-coup demonstration in Myanmar

At least five people were shot dead in Myanmar on Sunday for participating in demonstrations against February's coup.

Citing local media reports, Kyodo News reported that Myanmar security forces on Sunday shot dead at least five people participating in anti-coup demonstrations.

Three of them were killed in Yangon and one each in the central city of Bago and in the northern state of Kachin, the report said.

The Japanese news outlet reported that a group of politicians from ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) formed a parallel civilian government in defiance of the coup.

Large numbers of protesters have taken to the streets of Myanmar since the military seized power in the February 1 coup, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, despite the increasingly deadly posture taken by security forces to quiet the wave of protests.

Since February, more than 70 people have so far been killed by Myanmar security forces, a UN expert on human rights in the Southeast Asian country said recently, adding arrests and detentions have risen beyond 2,000, with violence against protesters, including violence against people sitting peacefully in their homes, steadily increasing.

( With inputs from ANI )