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 yesterday.
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 said 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.
Burmese 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 UN.
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.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese