Mine explosion injures one in Three Pagodas Pass

by Phanida
Tuesday, 15 September 2009 19:47

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A villager was injured on Monday after a land mine exploded at the Three Pagodas Pass, a border point between Thailand and Burma, which is also a centre for several ceasefire armed groups in Burma’s southern Mon State.

The explosion occurred near the fence of the Three Pagoda Pass Township Land Record Department Office, injuring a villager. The blast site is close to the exclusive government office zone where the offices including the Military Affairs Security (MAS, Information and Public Relation Department, and Post and Telegraph office.

“The mine exploded behind the Land Record Office fence at about 8 in the evening. The intensity of the blast was severe and one villager received minor injuries,” Nai Han Thar a.k.a. Nai Bwan Khai, in-charged of the Liaison office of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), a Mon ethnic armed group that has ceasefire agreement with the junta.

He added that similar explosions took place in the town last month but so far no perpetrator has been apprehended. The blasts, however, did not cause any injuries.

Three Pagodas Pass, the border town, is particularly infested with several armed groups including Burmese Army troops, the NMSP, Karen Peace Force, splinter Karen armed groups such as Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council led by Htein Maung.

Meanwhile, Maj. Ah Bai and Col. Nai Chit Sein of the Mon National Peace Council Party (MNPCP), a breakaway group from the NMSP, were reportedly shot at by unknown gunmen in front of the Burmese Army’s LIB 62, which stationed at the entrance of the Three Pagoda Pass Township on September 12.

Reportedly, one of them died on the spot while Maj. Nai Chit Sein obtained minor injuries and was treated at the Three Pagodas Pass Hospital.

Similarly, NMSP District Committee member Nai Min Naung was assassinated on his way back from Moulmein in April. In connection to the assassination, four members of the NMSP breakaway faction led by Nai Aung Chang were arrested.