At least 8 killed in Myanmar Insein Prison blasts: Media reports

Parcel bombs are suspected in Insein Jail explosions that reportedly killed three employees and 5 guests.

Police barricades outdoors Insein jail on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, in 2015. Two explosions on the jail on Wednesday are reported to have killed no less than eight individuals, based on media studies [File: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP]

No less than eight individuals have been reported killed following two explosions inside Myanmar’s high-security Insein Jail, based on media studies.

The BBC’s Burmese-language information service reported that two parcel bombs had detonated on Wednesday morning, killing three jail employees and 5 guests and injuring no less than one other 10 individuals because the explosions ripped by means of the jail’s mail room.

Native information organisations Myanmar Now and Khit Thit Media additionally reported that eight individuals had been killed and 15 injured.

In keeping with Myanmar Now, one of many bombs exploded in a constructing the place employees obtain care packages for prisoners and one other detonated outdoors the constructing.

Bomb blasts, gunfire at Myanmar’s largest jail kills eight, together with guards

Jail employees and civilians are reportedly amongst these killed after pictures are allegedly fired from a watchtower at Yangon’s Insein Jail following a parcel bomb assault
https://t.co/RKBepoVHgf

— Myanmar Now (@Myanmar_Now_Eng) October 19, 2022

Khit Thit media, citing a press release from the nation’s navy, additionally reported that a number of pictures had been fired by the jail’s navy personnel after the blast and that among the individuals wounded had sustained gunshot wounds.

Myanmar Now cited a witness who stated that, following the explosion, gunfire from a watchtower brought about individuals to scatter.

No group has but claimed duty for the assault, based on Khit Thit.

Insein is the nation’s largest jail with some 10,000 inmates, a lot of whom are political detainees.

A number of foreigners are additionally held on the jail, together with Japanese journalist Toru Kubota, who was jailed for 10 years after being arrested at an anti-coup protest.

Former UK Ambassador to Myanmar Vicky Bowman is serving a one-year sentence at Insein for failing to declare she was dwelling at an deal with completely different from the one listed on her foreigner registration certificates.

In keeping with the BBC, the 100-year-old jail on the outskirts of the industrial capital Yangon is closely guarded and is infamous for the ill-treatment of prisoners and studies of torture.

Greater than 2,200 individuals have been killed and 15,000 arrested within the navy’s crackdown on dissent since a February 2021 coup in Myanmar that eliminated the elected authorities of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who was arrested when the navy seized energy, has since been charged with a number of crimes and sentenced to 26 years in jail. Her trials are ongoing.