Two men of Kachin origin are being detained in Mandalay in connection with a recent bomb attack, one of three apparently coordinated explosions to hit Burma on Friday last week.

Police yesterday raided a house in Mandalay city’s Mahaaungmyay township and arrested its inhabitants, and the two Kachin men who were staying as guests. The raid took place after police discovered a mobile phone at the scene of the explosion near to Zeycho market on 24 June, said a Mandalay resident.

“There was a mobile phone found near to the scene where the explosion took place and authorities traced it to a goldsmith house on 36th street – they found two Kachin guests there,” he said.

“They questioned the whole family and released them in the evening [yesterday] but detained the two Kachin. We haven’t heard whether they have been released yet.”

An article in the New Light of Myanmar dated 28 June said however that police were tracking three men, all 25, in connection with the Mandalay bombing and the attacks in Pyin Oo Lwin and the capital, Naypyidaw.

The names of the three listed in the article, Sai Kyaw Myint Oo, Sai Aik and Sai Hsam, suggest however that they are of Shan origin. It alleged they had bought the car under which the Mandalay bomb was planted, and had rented the houses in Naypyidaw and Pyin Oo Lwin which were destroyed by the explosions.

Three people were injured in the attacks, but no one died. Images released from the scene of the Mandalay incident suggest that the device had been packed full of shrapnel.