The regional office of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Mandalay was targeted in a bomb attack at midnight on Wednesday, according to eyewitnesses.
Two successive bombs went off on the third and fourth floors of the five-storey building in Chanayethazan Township after at least eight people in plainclothes arrived in two vehicles and broke into the office, a neighbourhood local told Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity.
“They broke into the office, which had been sealed off, and they detonated the bombs on two floors,” the source said.
The regional party office had been shut down since the military coup on February 1.
The eyewitness pointed out that the attack happened during the military-imposed overnight curfew from midnight until 4am, which has been in place since the third wave of the Covid-19 outbreak hit the country in July.
“As we all know, who can go out at such a time?” he said, implying that the attackers had ties to the junta authorities.
According to photos of the office seen by Myanmar Now after the explosions, the facade of the building was damaged and glass windows were shattered.
The attack marks the third time that the NLD office has been targeted since June.
Most recently, on October 16, the building was ransacked by unidentified individuals, with artwork and property valued at 15m kyat (US$8,300) destroyed, according to an NLD member in Mandalay.
On the night of June 13, men in civilian clothes also broke into the NLD office and destroyed campaign banners and other office property; grenades were used to target another party office on Mandalay’s 62nd St on the same night.
“The second attack was the worst and it caused the most damage. Paintings of the Mother were also destroyed,” the NLD member told Myanmar Now, referring to detained NLD chair Aung San Suu Kyi, and describing the assault as “very upsetting.”
“It is obvious which organisation wants to attack and inflict damage on our party. They perpetuated the attacks,” the NLD member said, refusing to name the affiliated group.
One night earlier, the home of the party’s jailed vice chair and former chief minister Zaw Myint Maung, and a hotel whose owner supported the NLD in the last two elections were targeted in attacks involving gunfire and grenades.
After the military seized power from the elected NLD government led by Aung San Suu Kyi on the pretext of alleged voter fraud, several party offices and homes of NLD members were looted and targeted in bomb attacks and raids.
Plainclothes junta soldiers ransacked a local party office in Mandalay’s Maha Aungmyay Township in late August. Earlier this month, a statue of Aung San Suu Kyi in the same township was destroyed.
Similarly, in Tanintharyi Region’s Dawei and Myeik townships, NLD party offices were targeted in bomb attacks last week.
In late August, junta soldiers raided the home of Mandalay regional parliament speaker Aung Kyaw Oo—an NLD senior member detained since the February 1 coup—and assaulted his family members and stole 1m kyat (US$550) from the residence.
That same month, the NLD’s township branch in Taungtha, also in Mandalay, was targeted in attacks on three consecutive nights involving alleged gunfire and destruction of the premises, according to a party member from the area.
Another ward office for the NLD in Taungtha was also vandalised during the same period.
The NLD’s headquarters in Yangon’s Shwegondaing neighbourhood was targeted in an arson attack in late March by an unidentified group of people after the building was raided by junta authorities more than one month earlier.
“It has become more and more obvious that [the military council] wants to violently wipe out our party. The military council is proving it is an illegal terrorist organisation,” said Aung Kyi Nyunt, an NLD central executive committee member.
Many NLD members and parliamentarians have had to go into hiding after being target for arrest by the junta, which has accused the party of causing public alarm and inciting violence since the coup.
