Curfew declared in town in Shan state following destruction of Muslim orphanage and mosque in latest outbreak of unrest.
Myanmar's government has called for calm after mobs burned down a Muslim orphanage, a mosque and shops during a new eruption of religious violence in the northeastern Shan state.
Authorities imposed a curfew late on Tuesday in Lashio, about 700km northeast of Yangon, after a mob of 200 local residents surrounded a local police station demanding they hand over a Muslim detainee.
Nay Win, 48, a Muslim from a nearby township, was arrested after allegedly setting fire to Aye Aye Win, 24, a Shan Buddhist, earlier in the day after the two had an altercation at a petrol station, Lashio police said.
The woman was admitted to hospital.
"According to witnesses, she was not burned seriously but has injuries on her face and arms," Sai Sam Min, a member of parliament from Lashio, said.
Jim Della-Giacoma, of the International Crisis Group, talks about the latest violence in Myanmar
"We imposed the curfew at 9pm (14:30 GMT) on Tuesday to control the angry mob which included Buddhist monks," a police station spokesman, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
"A mosque and a religious school and some houses were destroyed by the mob, but there were
no deaths or injuries".
A local hospital said it had received four people with slash wounds but their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.
Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from Yangon, said the situation in Lashio had already been
brought under control by police.
He said he had received reports that some officials in Lashio, including the fire department, "did very little" to stop the Buddhist mob from attacking Muslim establishments.
Myanmar's recent sectarian violence has been partly blamed on the 969 movement, launched in February by an extremist monk in Mandalay named Wirathu, who encourages Buddhists to shun Muslim-owned shops.
There are less than 2,000 Myanmar Muslims living in Lashio, sources said, of the city's estimated population of about 130,000.
Third outbreak
The incident in Shan state is the third outbreak of anti-Muslim violence to flare up in Myanmar this year.
On April 30, in Oakkan, about 100km north of Yangon, Buddhists went on a rampage after a Muslim woman allegedly bumped into a monk, breaking his begging bowl.
Curfew declared in town in Shan state following the attack.
source:
Religious violence erupts in Myanmar - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English
in India. and you unfortunately seem to belong to that unfortunate group... lets just agree to hugely disagree on this...
