Blast during sermon by radical Myanmar monk wounds four
Aung Hla Tun 1 hour ago
By Aung Hla
Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - An explosion in a car parked meters away from a
radical Buddhist monk wounded four people at a mass sermon in northern
Myanmar, police said on Monday.
The unexplained blast went off late on Sunday in Myanmar's
second-biggest
city, Mandalay, according to police and witnesses. It took place during
a ceremony conducted by Wirathu, a prominent anti-Muslim monk who once
called himself "the Burmese bin Laden".
Two monks were among those treated in hospital for minor injuries but Wirathu was not among them.
"A small explosion went off in a car which was parked about 40 feet
away from U Wirathu," a Mandalay police officer told Reuters by
telephone, referring to the monk by an honorific. The officer requested
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion or
the result of any preliminary police
probe.
A witness said security had since been stepped up in Mandalay. Even
prior to the explosion, security has been tight this week during
Buddhist events held in the commercial capital, Yangon.
The explosion took place on the fifth and final day of mass sermons
held by Wirathu, the chief proponent of a grassroots movement known as
969. The movement has been accused of stirring anti-Muslim sentiment in a
deeply Buddhist nation, where curbs on freedom of speech and assembly
have eased since the end of military rule two years ago.
A Reuters investigation last month showed 969 monks were providing a
moral justification for a wave of
anti-Muslim bloodshed that could derail Myanmar's nascent reforms.
Government officials were unavailable for comment. President Thein
Sein's office has described 969 as a "symbol of peace" and Wirathu as "a
son of Lord Buddha".
At least 237 people have been killed in Myanmar in religious violence
over the past year and about 150,000 people displaced. Most of the
victims were Muslim and the most deadly incidents happened in Rakhine
State, where about 800,000 Rohingya Muslims live, according to the
United Nations.
Reuters investigations in Rakhine state and in the central city of
Meikhtila revealed the violence was started on both occasions by
Buddhist mobs led by monks.
(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Ron Popeski)
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