Category Archives: Burma

Myanmar on alert of terror attack

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H/T M

Asia News Net:


Myanmar on alert of terror attack

News Desk

Eleven Media Group

Publication Date : 06-05-2013

 

Myanmar has beefed up security measures and tightened control over travelling visa after reports of possible terrorist attacks in the country, according to Min Aung, Police Lt. Col. of the Myanmar Police Force.

“We’ve been reported the terrorists are trying to enter the country and attempt bombing. So, we have ordered [regional police forces] to step up security measures. We must be always alert as they may wait for the chance to attack. Security has been tightened at the border checkpoints, too,” he said.

Indonesian terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir has recently called for a ‘jihad’ in Myanmar, rousing the mujahideens or the Islamic militants. This alerted the regional police to carry out necessary inspections in predominantly Muslim areas, Police Col. Hla Moe from Railway Police Department of Myanmar Police Force said.

“As the terrorists say they will wage jihad in Myanmar, we have to raise our security measures. We conduct inspections at the gates of and inside the city, said Mandalay Region Police Force’s Police Lt. Col. Tun Naing.

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Syrian Islamists set sight on Myanmar

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H/T Richard

Now Mmedia:

Syrian Islamist have been attempting to smuggle Muslim extremists into Myanmar, a Syrian Islamist source told NOW.

According to the source, “many attempts have been made to send Jihadists to Myanmar for the sake of our brothers.”

“Contacts with Islamist groups in Pakistan, India and other surrounding countries are being made in order to facilitate their entry into Myanmar.”

The source, however, added that “these attempts have failed.”

Speaking to NOW, Salafist Sheikh Bilal al-Masri called on Muslims to attack Buddhists and their interests.

“I decree that every person who can get to a Buddhist should kill him because they are killing our people and the Muslims cannot be blamed for their reaction.”

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Burma sentences 3 muslims to time for ‘sectarian violence’

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H/T Magic Martin:

Myanmar sentences 3 Muslims for sectarian violence

A court has sentenced three Muslims to 14-year prison terms for their role in an outbreak of sectarian violence that shook Myanmar last month, an official said Friday.

The Associated Press

YANGON, Myanmar —

A court has sentenced three Muslims to 14-year prison terms for their role in an outbreak of sectarian violence that shook Myanmar last month, an official said Friday.

The convictions issued Thursday are the first reported since several days of anti-Muslim unrest in the central city of Meikhtila left more than 40 people dead and more than 12,000 displaced, most of them Muslim.

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Myanmar Muslims kill 8 Buddhists in Indonesian centre

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H/T Magic Martin

Google News:

By Atar Ahmad (AFP) – 6 hours ago

MEDAN, Indonesia — A group of Myanmar Muslims beat eight Buddhists to death at an Indonesian detention centre Friday after becoming enraged at news of deadly communal violence in their homeland, officials said.

The Rohingya Muslims launched the attack at the immigration centre on Sumatra island using weapons fashioned from smashed up beds and broom handles after seeing pictures of recent religious violence in Myanmar that left dozens dead.

The attack underscores the soaring Muslim-Buddhist tensions that have cast a shadow over political reforms in Myanmar, where the end of decades of authoritarian military rule has laid bare deep sectarian fault lines.

The recent disorder in Mynmar was the worst since an eruption of violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the western state of Rakhine last year that left scores dead and tens of thousands — mainly Muslims — displaced.

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Burmese Muslim school hit by deadly blaze in Rangoon

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BBC:

A fire at a Muslim school in the Burmese city of Rangoon has killed at least 13 people including children, officials say.

Police officers said the fire was caused by an electrical fault and not due to any criminal activity. Most of the children escaped unharmed.

The fire comes amid an upsurge in violence between Buddhists and Muslims.

At least 40 people have been killed since 20 March and curfews have been imposed in some areas.

Police spokesman Thet Lwin told the AP news agency the two-storey building – part of a mosque – in eastern Rangoon sheltered about 75 orphans.

It was not immediately clear how many children were among the dead.

Most of them escaped by running out of a door after police knocked it open, he said.

Fire crews put out the blaze and the building is reported to be badly burned but intact.

The Myanmar [Burma] Police Force said on its official Facebook page that the victims had died from burns or smoke inhalation.

“According to the investigation by township police officers, the fire was caused by excessively high (electric) voltage,” it said.

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Buddhist – Muslim violence and arson continues in Burma

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H/T Magic Martin

UPI.Com

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar, March 28 (UPI) — More than 100 homes belonging to Muslims in central Myanmar were raided during sectarian violence, a local police official said.

Anti-Muslim riots spread to Muslim townships of Monyo and Padigon, about 100 miles north of Rangoon. A Monyo police officer told The Irrawaddy, a Thai newspaper covering Myanmary, that overnight clashes were spreading but there were no deaths reported.

“A mosque was totally destroyed and nearly 100 Muslim-owned houses were ransacked,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.

Myanmar’s government imposed curfews and martial law over parts of the country as violence between Muslims and Buddhists erupted last week. The United Nations estimates at least 12,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.

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Myanmar forces fire warning shots to break up mobs

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H/T Magic Martin

Boston.Com

          AP /  March 27, 2013

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar security forces fired shots into the air to break up new religious violence as attacks on Muslim targets continued despite government attempts to halt them, state television reported Wednesday.

The evening TV report said there were attacks against ‘‘religious buildings,’’ shops and houses on Tuesday and Wednesday in Bago region north of Yangon, and warning shots were fired to stop the unrest. No casualties were reported.

It said curfews and a ban on public gatherings were imposed in two more townships, bringing the total to nine.

Residents contacted by phone said the targets were Muslims.

Occasional isolated violence involving majority Buddhists and minority Muslims has occurred for decades, even under the authoritarian military governments that ruled the country from 1962 to 2011. But tensions have heightened since last year when hundreds of people were killed and more than 100,000 made homeless in violence in western Myanmar between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya.

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The hardline Buddhists targeting Sri Lanka’s Muslims

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 BBC Asia

After a series of attacks on mosques, wild rumours about animal slaughter and an attempt to outlaw the halal system of classification, the BBC’s Charles Haviland investigates how Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority is being targeted by hardline Buddhists.

On a January morning a crowd of Buddhist monks storm a law college, yelling, chanting and even hitting one or two seemingly random people and pushing back the police. Furiously they shout that the exam results have been distorted to favour Muslims.

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