Tensions are high in Yangon as multiple bomb blasts in the former capital triggered panic and tightened security on Thursday.
Two explosions were reported in the city’s Sanchaung Township, where residents said that an unidentified man tossed a bomb into a military vehicle patrolling near the intersection of Bargayar and Baho roads at around 4pm.
The incident occurred near a market with heavy pedestrian traffic. No details regarding casualties were available at the time of reporting.
“People on the street told me there was shattered glass on the road. I didn’t go to the place where it happened,” said one woman who spoke to Myanmar Now.
According to residents and media reports, soldiers stormed into the area and nearby neighbourhoods soon after the blast.
“[Soldiers] told shopkeepers in the market to close their businesses, and people were running all over the place,” the woman said.
About two hours later, another explosion was reported near the intersection of Baho Road and Zeyawaddy Street. Two residents told Myanmar Now their apartments were shaken by the blast.
According to the BBC’s Burmese-language service, the second explosion was caused by a bomb detonated by junta soldiers after they discovered it while securing the area.
The military has deployed soldiers throughout Sanchaung Township and in neighbouring areas following the incidents on Thursday, according to residents.
The exiled news outlet DVB has reported that a number of young people, including a food delivery worker, were detained during searches conducted in the areas hit by the blasts.
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the bombings.
A few hours earlier, in eastern Yangon’s Dagon Seikkan Township, a bomb went off outside a municipal office, residents said.
A coalition of urban guerrilla groups that calls itself the Anti-Fascist Armed Force claimed responsibility for that attack.
A member of the coalition said his group also attacked two military vehicles in North Dagon Township with bombs. Myanmar Now could not verify this claim.
The attacks on Thursday come two days after Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) declared the start of a “resistance war” against the junta that seized power in February.
Since then, the regime has increased its presence in the streets, stopping vehicles and pedestrians in an effort to track down suspected anti-junta insurgents.
It has also ordered homeowners and landlords in Yangon and other cities to provide ward administrators with detailed information about all residents living on their properties.
Anyone who fails to register short-term guests who are later found to have carried out an attack against the regime will have their property confiscated from them, the junta warned.
