Min Lwin
The Irrawaddy News
www.irrawaddy.com
January 18, 2008
Increased security forces have been deployed around important buildings, upscale supermarkets and Rangoon railways stations after four bomb blasts in the country since last Friday, according to residents in Rangoon.
“There are a lot of security forces assigned downtown, especially around Sule pagoda and near Rangoon railway stations,” said one resident. “Some say they have found bombs or some type of devices.”
The latest bomb blast occurred on Wednesday in Pyinbonegyi, 105 km north of Rangoon, according to The New Light of Myanmar.
Three people have been killed in the explosions.
The first bomb went off in the new administrative capital of Naypidaw; the second in the northern town of Pyu; and the third in the main Rangoon Railway Station.
No group has claimed responsibility for the explosions.
Soldiers of the No 77 Light Infantry Division are reinforcing police and the Swan-Arh-Shin, a militia whose members helped surpress the pro-democracy protests.
Private vehicles carrying soldiers and Swarn-Ah-Shin members patrolled streets in downtown in Rangoon on Thursday night.
“They (security forces) are searching carefully. They locked the toilets in some buildings, even a toilet in Sakura Tower on Sule Pagoda Road,” said an employee in Sakura Tower, one of tallest buildings in Rangoon.
Both police and soldiers are stationed at the International Trade Centre near Puzundaung Market, the scene of a deadly bomb blast on May 7, 2005, in which two dozen people died and more than 160 were injured.
Traffic police have also been beefed up at major intersections in Rangoon, according to a Rangoon resident.
A well-inform source said the authorities are alarmed that the bomb explosions have continued in different locations and have now occurred in Rangoon.
The military regime has blamed the explosions on foreign aid organizations, claming they have sent terrorist saboteurs with explosives across the border to destabilize Burma.
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