Friday, 16 April 2010 23:27 Min Thet
Rangoon (Mizzima) - Very few people attended the Thingyan traditional water festival at pavilions along Kandawgyi Road, Mingala Taungnyunt Township, Rangoon on Friday, the last day of the traditional Burmese celebration.
Residents blamed the poor turnout on the lethal bomb blasts around Kandawgyi Lake in the same district a day earlier that killed at least eight people and wounded 94 others.
A resident from Sanchaung Township said: “We dare not go to our pavilion, named ‘Face to Face’. We bought the tickets for every day of the festival but, today, our parents wouldn’t let us go. We were nervous yesterday.”
Three big pavilions including Air-Bagan’s on Rangoon-Pyay Road were a little crowded, a participant said.
“Just pavilions from Pyay Road are a little crowded, and T Home Pavilion from Kabar Aye Pagoda Road are also crowded. The Tawwin Family Pavilion, near St. John’s bus stop, is also a little crowded because singer Ye Lay was performing there,” a participant said.
Authorities allowed the X2O pavilion, the blast site, to reopen on April 16.
Anticipating big crowds for the festival in the old capital, Rangoon Peace and Development Council restricted pavilion building to one in each township, under very strict guidelines.
But, on Thursday, three explosions killed eight people and injured 94 injured, Rangoon Division Police Force said.
But state-run newspapers on Friday reported that more than 170 people were injured.
“According to our list, 94 were injured. Not more than that. I don’t know why the state-run newspapers gave a higher number for the injured than was on our list,” an official from the Rangoon police force told Mizzima.
One of the victims of a blast was discharged from Rangoon General Hospital, a hospital source said.
Friday, April 16, 2010
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