Bomb Blast in Myitkyina

The Kachin Post

January 7, 2005 — A small scaled bomb had exploded yesterday in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State in northern Burma, according to the residents. No one injured from the bomb blast, which took placed in downtown of Myitkyna.

A staff from Kachin Independence Organization’s, KIO, liaison office in Myitkyina said that a bomb exploded in yesterday’s early morning in a house owned by Muslim family. The house located in Myo Thit quarter in downtown. Local authority arrested two sons of the house owner for interrogation, said KIO staff.

KIO deputy general secretary Sumlut Gun Maw said, “we don’t know who is responsible for that [bomb explosion].”

In 2004 three bombs had exploded in different location in Kachin State. Two of three explosions were believed to be related with KIO internal conflict. On December 10, a bomb hit the vehicle of the leader of New Democratic Army-Kachin, NDA-K, another ceasefire group in Kachin State. NDA-K leader Zahkung Ting Ying narrowly escaped from the explosion.

On September 15, Bawmwang Sinwa Naw, a member of NDA-K, was died after bomb explosion in his resident in Myitkyina.

On Feb, 26, 2004, deputy chief of Staff of the Kachin Independence Army Col Lazing Bawk was killed by a bomb blast in a toilet of his house in Laiza, a town adjacent to the Chinese border.