Arsonists Target Headquarters of Myanmar’s NLD

By The Irrawaddy 26 March 2021

The headquarters of the National League for Democracy, the party led by Myanmar’s ousted leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was attacked with Molotov cocktails early on Friday morning, but no serious damage was reported.

Nearly all of the party’s leaders, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, have been detained for more than a month by the regime.

CCTV camera footage caught at least three men throwing the incendiary devices into the party’s headquarters at around 4:15 a.m. before running away, causing the entrance gate some minor damage.

Residents in the neighborhood helped put out the fire before firefighters arrived.

Shortly after the Feb. 1 coup, the NLD headquarters near the Shwedagon Pagoda was raided by junta troops during nighttime curfew hours. The office’s properties, including documents and computer hard disks, were confiscated, the NLD said at the time.

U Soe Lay, an NLD official based at the headquarters, said the party tried to filed a case at Bahan Police Station.

“But we still haven’t been able to officially file a case, as there were no senior officials there to accept the case,” he said.

He speculated the attack may have been committed by “someone who had a grudge against the party and its electoral success.”

He added that no progress had been made on a legal case filed by the party over last month’s raid on its office.

Under Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s leadership the party won a landslide victory in the general election in November last year. The military alleged massive electoral fraud during the polls to justify its coup.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained since the takeover. The junta has targeted her with a number of absurd charges while also launching graft probes against her. Since the coup, many other NLD members have been arrested and some have been killed in custody.

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