NEWS: Myanmar
At least 8 visitors killed in Insein prison bombing

At least eight peo­ple have died in an explo­sion at Yan­gon’s infa­mous Insein prison.

Two par­cel bombs explod­ed at the prison entrance on Wednes­day morn­ing, killing three prison staff and five vis­i­tors, locals told BBC Burma.

Insein Prison is the coun­try’s largest prison and holds about 10,000 inmates, includ­ing polit­i­cal prisoners.

No group has yet claimed respon­si­bil­i­ty for the attack. Author­i­ties con­firmed that 18 oth­ers were injured.

Author­i­ties said the bomb explod­ed in the pris­on’s mail­room. Lat­er, anoth­er bomb (which did not det­o­nate) was found wrapped in a plas­tic bag.

Author­i­ties con­firmed that the five dead vis­i­tors were women and rel­a­tives of the prisoners.

Among them was the moth­er of stu­dent leader Lynn Het Naing, bet­ter known as James, who was arrest­ed by Myan­mar mil­i­tary author­i­ties last June. She had been to the prison to deliv­er a box of rice the week of her son’s trial.

Lin Htet Naing’s father-in-law Nay Win said he was allowed to see the body at the morgue.

“I feel very sad. It’s been a long time since her hus­band passed away, but she was the only one who always dis­trib­uted her food and neces­si­ties for her son.”

Lin Htet Naing, 35, has been detained sev­er­al times since becom­ing a promi­nent stu­dent leader more than a decade ago. His arrest in June was for oppos­ing a mil­i­tary coup last year that over­threw the civil­ian gov­ern­ment of the elect­ed Aung San Suu Kyi.

Phyyo Phyo Aung, wife of Lin Htet Naing and moth­er of two, has been on the run since tak­ing part in the post-coup protests.

Insein Prison is a large, heav­i­ly guard­ed com­plex on the out­skirts of the for­mer capital.

The 100-year-old prison is noto­ri­ous for its harsh con­di­tions and inhu­mane treat­ment of pris­on­ers, accord­ing to rights groups.

How­ev­er, most of the coun­try is occu­pied by a guer­ril­la front known as the Peo­ple’s Defense Force, and the regime faces severe resistance.

Yan­gon has seen fre­quent bomb­ings, most­ly small ones, since the army crushed mass protests against last year’s coup.

They typ­i­cal­ly tar­get those seen as mil­i­tary col­lab­o­ra­tors, includ­ing gov­ern­ment offi­cials, sus­pect­ed infor­mants and, more recent­ly, Air Force pilots impli­cat­ed in airstrikes on vil­lages resist­ing the mil­i­tary regime.

There have also been assas­si­na­tion attempts, shoot­ings, and behead­ings in rur­al areas that have been blamed on both sides as atti­tudes harden.

The scale of the fight­ing and dead­ly fight­ing since the begin­ning of this year is said to have tak­en on the appear­ance of a civ­il war.