Police in central Myanmar fired warning shots to disperse a crowd after a mosque and shops were attacked on Tuesday, the president’s spokesman said, in the latest religious unrest to hit the country. The fighting was sparked in the small town of Oakkan, around 100 kilometres north of Yangon, after a woman accidentally bumped into a young novice monk and knocked his alms bowl onto the ground, according to Ye Htut.
It is the latest unrest to flare in the region north of Yangon, Myanmar’s main city, after a series of attacks by Buddhist mobs on Muslim homes, businesses and mosques in March. “According to the initial information received by the Myanmar Police Force, a mosque and shops nearby were attacked... The police force had to fire warning shots to disperse the crowd,” Ye Htut said in a post on his Facebook page, adding that the situation had been brought under control. He said some shops were destroyed but no buildings had been burnt. “There were some attacks to the mosque by throwing with stones. No casualties were reported,” a police said.
At least 43 people were killed and thousands were left homeless in March in fighting apparently triggered by a quarrel between a Muslim gold shop owner and Buddhist customers in Meiktila.