25 suspects detained for riot in north Myanmar

(Xinhua) 18:33, May 30, 2013   

YANGON, May 30 (Xinhua) -- At least 25 suspects were arrested and interrogated for leading communal riot over the last two days in Lashio, Myanmar's northern Shan state, which caused one person killed and five others injured, official sources said.
The detainees are from local Lashio township. However, search is being made at entry gates of Lashio to find out if there involves outsiders from other towns, the sources said.

On Wednesday, arson and destruction involving two communal groups continued in the afternoon but was later dispersed by security forces.

Lashio seemed calm on Thursday morning, but a group of mob attempted to destroy a house owned by Muslim. Some 15 people were detained, according to other local sources.

In the riot over the last two days, five residential houses, three religious buildings (mosques), one cinema , four warehouses, 32 shops, two vehicles and 11 motor cycles were burnt or destroyed, the sources added.

The communal riot, which started Tuesday afternoon, was triggered after a local woman who trades gasoline was burned to injuries by pouring gasoline onto her and setting fire by a man from Kengtung township in Lashio.

The man, who committed the arson, was taken into custody by police and was found with stimulant tablets.

However, hundreds of angry local residents along with some Buddhist monks rounded up the police station to demand the handover of the culprit later on the day.

It followed that a mosque and some nearby Islam-owned shops in Lashio were burned and destroyed by the angry residents in the evening.

Local authorities imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew beginning 8 p.m. on the day in a bid to control the situation.

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