Faizel Patel, 2016-07-02
A mob has burned down a masjid in northern Myanmar in Burma – the second such attack in just over a week in the predominantly Buddhist nation.
It’s believed the attack took place on Friday, when a group of villagers stormed the masjid and set it on fire after authorities failed to meet a June 30 deadline to tear down the structure to make way for a bridge.
“The problem started because the mosque was built near a (Buddhist) pagoda. The Muslim people refused to destroy the building when the Buddhists discovered it,” Moe Lwin, a local police officer, told AFP.
The state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reports that security forces in Hpakant in Kachin state were unable to stop the attackers.
Reports indicate no arrests were made after the attack.
In a separate incident, a mob last month demolished a masjid in Bago Region, about 60km northeast of the capital Yangon.
There has been sporadic but fierce violence against Muslims in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since rioting in 2012 forced more than 100,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee their homes in western Rakhine State.
The UN has warned the government led by Nobel Peace Prize Aung San Suu Kyi to crack down on religious violence.
A local NGO worker Dashi Naw Lawn, from the Kachin Network Development Foundation who visited the town told AFP that security forces had been deployed to maintain order.
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