A man has been arrested in Myanmar after making a phone call threatening to blow up government offices

File photo shows Myanmar police officers on patrol in Yangon.

A man has been arrested in Myanmar after making a phone call threatening to blow up government offices, state media said Tuesday, as security remained high after a string of blasts in Yangon.
(AFP/File/Saeed Khan)

Tin Myint, 41, was held on Friday, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported, three hours after he allegedly threatened to blow up the offices of a pro-junta organisation and a local police station in downtown Yangon.

The paper did not mention his motive for the threats.


Tin Myint's arrest came after a suspected bombmaker accidentally blew himself up on October 19 at his home in Yangon in the latest in a spate of blasts in the military-ruled nation.

Myanmar saw four bomb blasts last month, one of which killed two people and wounded 10 at a video cafe northeast of Yangon. Authorities later arrested an ethnic Karen rebel fighter in connection with the bombing.

The ruling junta has in the past blamed explosions on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels who have been battling the military rulers for decades, but the regime has also started pointing the finger at democracy activists.

State-run media in September accused two members of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) of bombing pro-government offices in July.

The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never allowed it to take office and Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest almost constantly since.