Muslims and Buddhists clashed in Myanmar's northern city of Lashio on
Tuesday, witnesses said, as a wave of sectarian violence reached a
mountainous region near China's border.
Phone lines were down in the city of about 131,000 people and the extent
of the violence was unclear. Witnesses reported several large fires and
said a mosque and Buddhist monastery appear to have been torched.
The violence followed unrest between Muslims and Buddhists in other parts of Myanmar
over the past year, including fighting in the central city of Meikhtila
in March that killed at least 44 people, mostly Muslims, and razed
several Muslim neighborhoods. About 12,000 people lost their homes.
Lashio, capital of Shan State, had been spared from the religious
unrest. Known for its strong Chinese influence, it is about 190 km (120
miles) from Muse, a city on China's border.
Hajji Aung Lwin, a Muslim man from a village on the outskirts of Lashio,
said the fighting appeared to have begun after a violent quarrel
between a Muslim man and a Buddhist woman. After police detained the
man, local Buddhists surrounded the police station and demanded he be
handed over, he said.
The mob then tried to set Myoma Mosque, near Lashio market, on fire, he
said. A second witness reporting seeing flames in the city and a large
building on fire.
Sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Muslims, who make up about 5
percent of the population in the Buddhist-majority country, have erupted
several times since a quasi-civilian government took power in March
2011 after five decades of military dictatorship.
The most serious attacks took place in Rakhine State in the west in June
and October last year, when Buddhists fought against Rohingya Muslims,
who are denied citizenship by Myanmar and seen by many in the country as
illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. At least 192 people were killed.
(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun and Jared Ferrie; Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Pravin Char)
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