Electricity office in Mandalay’s Pyigyidagun Township bombed

Two bombs exploded at the electricity office in Pyigyidagun Township in Mandalay on Friday, seriously injuring at least two people, locals said. 

The explosions took place at 9am on Friday, with one blast occurring inside the office and one nearby, said township residents. 

At the time of reporting, no one had claimed responsibility for the bombings. 

“The explosions were really loud. You could actually hear them from really far away. I heard only one staff member was severely injured but I don’t know anything for sure yet,” a local 100-household administrator told Myanmar Now. “Very few people have come to the office to pay their electricity bills these days.” 

While the exact number of people hit by the blasts is not yet known, Myanmar Now has been able to confirm that one staff member from the office and another man in the area were severely injured.

A Pyigyidagun resident said that members of the military council arrived on the scene after the bombing, and that the area was full of soldiers both in and out of uniform. 

The junta authorities have been trying to forcibly collect payments for locals’ electricity bills since June, using loudspeakers in the streets to tell residents they are required to pay their bills at the local electricity office, and threatening to cut off power to households that have not paid. 

Members of the anti-coup resistance have been urging people not to pay their electricity bills, explaining that the funds will be used to further enrich the junta which they aim to topple.

Local chapters of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) have announced that they will take action against those threatening the public to pay these bills, and have said that civilians who go to the electricity offices do so at their own risk. 

However, on Friday, the Mandalay PDF released a statement saying that it was not involved in the bombing of the Pyigyidagun electricity office.

Explosions also took place at the electricity offices in Mandalay’s Chanayethazan and Amarapura townships on July 10. 

One of two staff members from the electricity office going door-to-door to collect payment for unpaid bills in Kyay Nan ward in Chanayethazan was shot and killed on July 11. 

Explosions also took place at multiple electricity offices in Yangon on July 7 and 9 and an intact bomb was also found at the electricity office in Thanlyin.