A police officer stands near a mosque, which
was burnt during a riot between Buddhist and Muslims in Lashio, Shan state on
29 May 2013. (Reuters)
By AFP
November 20, 2013
Burma police said on Wednesday they had
arrested three people suspected of planning bomb attacks on mosques, as the
country grapples with religious tensions after waves of anti-Muslim violence.
The suspects are all Buddhist men from the
western state of Rakhine [Arakan], where two bouts of unrest last year left
scores dead and some 140,000 displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims.
“They were planning to plant bombs at mosques,
after attending training on the border in Karen state,” a police official in
Rangoon told AFP on condition of anonymity, referring to the country’s eastern
frontier.
He said authorities were continuing to
investigate the “ongoing case”.
Burma remains tense after eruptions of
religious conflict that have killed around 250 people and cast a shadow over
much-praised political reforms.
A report in the state-run New Light of Myanmar
on Wednesday said an initial raid on a guesthouse in the Rangoon area found one
34-year-old suspect “red-handed making bombs with gunpowder and related
materials” on 13 November.
It said further investigations led police to
arrest two more suspects, aged 31 and 28, early Saturday.
The English-language newspaper said one of the
men had received training on the border and had received “two ready-to-use”
mines and a pack of gunpowder.
It said the intended target was “religious
buildings” and police were still hunting further suspects.
Burma was rattled by a series of explosions in
October that the United States denounced as “acts of terror”, including one at
the luxury Traders Hotel in Rangoon that injured an American woman.
No group claimed responsibility but authorities
said suspects arrested at the time were linked to ethnic Karen rebels.
There were two rounds of unrest in Rakhine in
June and October 2012, with fighting largely between local Buddhists and the
Rohingya minority. Clashes were later reported in other areas.
Last week the arrival of a delegation from the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for a tour of the country, including
Rakhine, sparked protests led by Buddhist monks.
Humanitarian workers have faced threats and
harassment for trying to help in Muslim camps.
Radical monks have been accused of fuelling the
violence with anti-Muslim rhetoric, while witnesses to violence in central
Burma in March said some attackers were dressed in clerical robes.
Burma views its population of some 800,000
Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and denies them
citizenship.
They are considered by the United Nations to be
one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.
Thousands of Rohingya have since fled Burma,
with many paying smugglers for passage on rickety and overcrowded boats to
Malaysia or further south. Hundreds are believed to have perished at sea so far
this year.
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