At least three people were injured on Thursday afternoon after they came under attack from a group of nationalists sheltering inside a Buddhist monastery near Shwedagon Pagoda.
The assailants, who reportedly included a number of monks, used slingshots to shoot ball bearings at a crowd gathered outside the Shwe Kyin monastery in Yangon’s Bahan township.
One of the injured was admitted to hospital after being struck with a ball bearing fired from within the grounds of the monastery.
There was a heavy security presence around the monastery at the time of the incident, but no action was taken against the attackers.
Tensions were high near the monastery following a series of attacks earlier in the day against protesters taking part in a “broken down cars” campaign in support of the civil disobedience movement against military rule.
It’s believed that the individuals who smashed the windows of four vehicles on Kabar Aye Pagoda road and assaulted one of the drivers have taken refuge at the monastery.
Witnesses reported on social media that at least four monks had vandalized the cars with metal batons. Photos posted on Facebook showed that one of the monks was Pyinnyawuntha, a member of the Patriotic Young Monks Union, an ultranationalist group.
Pyinnyawuntha was sentenced to a year in prison for incitement last June for joining an anti-government protest in Yangon in 2017.
He was also charged under the Peaceful Assembly Law and fined 10,000 kyat for organising a protest supporting the formerly detained far-right monk Wirathu in January of this year.
