Eight people killed, 18 wounded from blast at Yangon’s Insein prison
The dead include five visitors, relatives of prisoners. According to Radio Free Asia, an urban rebel group claimed responsibility for the attack. In Sagaing, prisoners attempted to escape from a police station.
Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) – At least eight people (three prison guards and five visitors) died in Yangon’s notorious Insein prison following an explosion yesterday.
According to eyewitnesses, two parcel bombs detonated at the prison’s parcel reception area, wounding another 18 people.
After the incident, Obo Prison in Mandalay started to refuse packages.
According to Radio Free Asia, an urban rebel group called the Special Task Force Agency of Burma claimed responsibility for the attack.
The visitors killed were all relatives of the detainees, including the mother of student leader Lin Htet Naing, jailed in June this year for his pro-democracy activities against the military junta, and as well as the mother of a man accused of tampering with an aircraft.
The mother of the student activist was bringing rice, while the other mother was going to prison to testify in her son’s case.
Insein Prison is a large complex on the outskirts of Myanmar's former capital. It holds about 10,000 detainees, mostly political prisoners jailed after the military coup of 1 February 2021.
Other attacks were reported in Yangon since the outbreak of civil war a year and a half ago.
Meanwhile, 14 prisoners escaped from the police station in a township in the central region of Sagaing. Four others were re-arrested while one, 25-year-old Ah Pon, was killed, while.
The dead man had been arrested for drug possession. Local sources told AsiaNews that because of the civil war, drugs are increasingly widespread among young people and youth.
The conflict pits Myanmar’s military and the People's Defence Forces, the armed wing of the exiled National Unity Government (NUG), which is allied with the ethnic militias that emerged following the country’s independence from the United Kingdom.
Now that the dry season has arrived, visibility and travel will be easier, with violence expected to rise across the country.
According to independent sources, more than 15,000 civilians have been arrested in the first six months of 2022, while more than 11,000 people have been killed.
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