Yangon: Yangon, Myanmar’s 2nd largest city, has the country’s largest prison. More than 10,000 prisoners are housed in this century-old prison. Most of them are political prisoners. There are widespread allegations that the prison has very strict restrictions and inhumane treatment of prisoners. In this situation, yesterday morning, some of the prisoners’ relatives had come to visit this prison. They were waiting in the post office of the jail.
Then the prison staff separated the 2 parcels that had arrived in the post. Then the explosives in the parcels exploded with a loud noise. That part of it shook. The bomb blast in the prison caused great tension among the inmates and prison staff. In this blast, 8 people including 3 prison staff and 5 visitors who had come to see the prisoners were killed on the spot. 10 others were seriously injured. Meanwhile, on receiving information about the bomb blast in the prison, the soldiers immediately rushed there and brought the entire prison under their security ring.
The injured were sent to the nearest hospital. No organization immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. It is noteworthy that various rebel forces have been formed in Myanmar against the overthrow of the democratically elected government in February last year and the military’s seizure of power, and they have been conducting attacks against the military from time to time.