Myanmar Junta Tightens Security in Commercial Capital Yangon

By The Irrawaddy 18 May 2022

Myanmar’s military regime is beefing up security measures in the country’s business hub Yangon amid rumors that it is trying to wipe out the city’s urban resistance groups, whose guerrilla attacks continue to inflict casualties on junta troops.

Residents report noticing irregular patrols in their neighborhoods since early this week.

“They went around in a convoy and stationed themselves near busy places. Then they searched all passersby and even checked their phones,” said a resident living near downtown.

Another resident said similar activities occurred in his neighborhood on Wednesday.

“Police and soldiers searched everyone, even in taxis. I don’t dare to bring my phone with me when I go out,” he said.

Yangon remains a hotbed of anti-regime resistance more than one year on since the military takeover last year. Despite the regime’s previous attempts to crush underground cells in the city, some are still active, staging flash mob protests against the regime and surprise attacks on the regime’s checkpoints in the city.

To protect themselves from the attacks, junta forces have built pillboxes at busy junctions.

But they still prove to be vulnerable. On Tuesday, a number of security personnel were wounded when a resistance group launched an attack on one of the pillbox bunkers at Thamine Junction in the city’s Mayangone Township.

On the same day, the regime-appointed local administrator in Alone Township was shot dead. Last month, the administrator was involved in arresting a child and his mother, who were accused of supporting resistance groups.

In April, several flash mob protests were reported around the city. The deputy governor of the Central Bank was shot at her home but survived. In the same month, security forces at the residential compound of the regime’s ministers in Yangon were gunned down from a passing vehicle, killing at least one police officer.

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