The Star Online: Metro: South & East
The Star Online: Metro: South & East |
- Myanmar police probe string of bomb blasts
- Outrage in India as temple stampede toll hits 115
- Ten dead Myanmar migrants found off Thai coast
| Myanmar police probe string of bomb blasts Posted: YANGON, Oct 14, 2013 (AFP) - Police in Myanmar said Monday they were investigating a series of mysterious bomb blasts that have left two people dead and several wounded in recent days. A man and a woman were killed and another person was injured in an explosion Friday at a guesthouse in the town of Taunggu about 65 kilometres (40 miles) from the capital Naypyidaw, police said. Two other devices exploded in Yangon on Sunday - one at a bus stop and another under a truck which wounded two teenagers, according to the authorities. Two more makeshift devices were found in the cities of Yangon and Mandalay on Monday. "We cannot say who is responsible for these acts," said Police Lieutenant General Min Aung of the Myanmar Police Force's intelligence and security department. "We're still investigating. The system they used is the same in all the cases. We think an organisation or a person planted them all," he told AFP by telephone from Naypyidaw. He said security had been stepped up in Yangon. Bomb blasts were relatively common under the former junta, which usually blamed the explosions on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels. But such explosions are less common under a new quasi-civilian government which took power in 2011, promising political reforms and efforts to end long-running ethnic insurgencies. In a message posted on its official Facebook page, the Yangon police appealed to people to be vigilant for any suspicious objects at railway stations, bus stops and other public places. "We also urge people to cooperate to find those causing unrest and casualties with explosions," it said. President Thein Sein's reformist government has reached tentative peace deals with the major ethnic minority rebel groups in the country, which has been racked by civil wars since independence from Britain in 1948. But the nation has been rocked by several outbreaks of Buddhist-Muslim religious violence since June 2012 that has left about 250 people dead and more than 140,000 left homeless, mostly Muslims. |
| Outrage in India as temple stampede toll hits 115 Posted: RATANGARH, India, Oct 14, 2013 (AFP) - Outrage mounted in India Monday after at least 115 devotees were crushed to death or drowned near a Hindu temple, the site of another deadly stampede only seven years ago. As survivors of Sunday's tragedy on a bridge recounted how desperate mothers threw their children into the water below, authorities came under fire over policing levels amid claims the panic was aggravated by baton-charging. Medics were also battling to save the lives of 10 people classified as critically ill after the stampede in the town of Ratangarh in the central state of Madhya Pradesh. "The death toll has now gone up to 115 and more than 110 injured," deputy police inspector general D. K. Arya told AFP. "Ten of those are in a very critical state." An AFP journalist at the site said the operation to recover the bodies had been finished and police investigators were now scouring the site. The tragedy cast a long shadow over celebrations marking the end of one of the holiest festivals in the Hindu calendar. Police said the panic had been sparked by rumours that the bridge was about to collapse. Up to 400,000 devotees were already inside or around the temple when the stampede took place while there were around 20,000 people on the bridge which spans the river Sindh. Large crowds began converging on the site from early morning, according to witnesses, on the penultimate day of the nine-day Navaratri festival which is dedicated to the worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. The disaster comes only seven years after another stampede outside the same temple when more than 50 people were crushed to death while crossing the river, after which authorities built the bridge. "Cops learnt no lessons from 2006 stampede," read a headline in The Hindustan Times, saying the tragedy "underlines the sheer ineptitude of the authorities responsible for the safety and security" of devotees. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a senior figure in the Bharatiya Janata Party, was facing calls to resign over the tragedy. "Had there been adequate police, administration and health officials at the temple site, the loss of lives could have been averted," said Kantilal Bhuria, the leader of the Congress party in the state. Manoj Sharma, one of the survivors, described a scene of utter mayhem. "People were jumping off the bridge to save themselves, but they could not swim against the tide. I also saw children being tossed from the bridge, only to be washed away," he told the Times of India. "I saw a mother desperately trying to protect her baby amidst the swelling, rushing crowds. But both died before my eyes. It was most horrific incident of my life." Man Singh, a fruitseller who had set up shop near the temple, told how people caught up in the crush in the bridge tried to save themselves with the clothes of some of the female victims. "Some pulled sarees off the bodies, making ropes out of them, and tried to lower themselves into the river but they weren't able to save themselves and ended up drowning as the river was flowing fast," Singh told AFP. Singh also cast doubt on the official toll, saying some survivors had already left with the bodies of their loved ones before rescue services arrived. Another survivor told the CNN-IBN news channel that the police had charged into the crowds, wielding baton sticks known as lathis. "There was a huge crowd and the police started lathi-charge. It caused panic and the people were killed," the unnamed witness told the network. Uma Shankar Gupta, the state's home minister, said authorities had not yet determined why the stampede had broken out, but downplayed suggestions that security was inadequate. "There were safety measures in place, this is an annual event," he told reporters. "We don't yet have information on how this happened, as our focus is on the rescue effort." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the condolences for the victims. "On this day of festivities, our hearts and prayers are with the victims and their families," Singh said in a statement. India has a long history of deadly stampedes at religious festivals, with at least 36 people trampled to death in February as pilgrims headed home from the Kumbh Mela religious festival on the banks of the river Ganges. Some 102 Hindu devotees were killed in a stampede in January 2011 in the state of Kerala, while 224 pilgrims died in September 2008 as thousands of worshippers rushed to reach a 15th-century hill-top temple in Jodhpur. |
| Ten dead Myanmar migrants found off Thai coast Posted: BANGKOK, Oct 14, 2013 (AFP) - Thai authorities said Monday they had recovered the bodies of 10 dead migrant workers from Myanmar whose boat is believed to have sunk in a recent storm. Myanmar officials have confirmed that the victims - nine men and one woman - were citizens of their country, according to the governor of the southern Thai province of Ranong, Cherdsak Jampathes. "It is likely they were illegal immigrants who came for work. They normally travel together about 20-30 people in a small boat," he told AFP. "There was a storm and rain early this week." Thousands of economic migrants from Myanmar work in the Thai fishing and other industries, often illegally. Last month the International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned of "serious abuses" in the kingdom's vast fishing industry such as forced labour and violence. Former military-ruled Myanmar has also seen an exodus of asylum-seekers in rickety boats following a wave of violence since last year, mostly targeting minority Muslims. |
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