“Many big shops which sell clothes here were closed. Only small grocery shops are open. All gold shops are closed,” said a resident in Three Pagodas Pass town, near the Thai-Burma border.

This resident explained that today, locals did not go to work in the rubber plantations or walk across the Thai border to work in the Thai shoe and textile factories.

“We heard there will be one more attack today, this is why the people are afraid to go to work,” said the resident.

The Burmese government troops have not yet been deployed to Three Pagodas Pass. “We do not see any soliders. I think they have been deployed outside the town,” said a member of the New Mon State Party.

Yesterday, an unknown armed group attacked and bombed the military intelligence office in Three Pagodas Pass, killing one military intelligence officer, one nine-year-old girl and wounding four others.

The government troops are investigating the town after the bomb attacked

The group was composed of seven people wearing masks over their faces. They attacked at 3 p.m. yesterday, throwing bombs at the military intelligence office and the Buddhist Assembly hall, where Burmese government troops resided.

The group drove motorbikes into the Three Pagodas Pass area, entering by way of Taung Wine, quarter 4, an ethnic Karen area.

Three Pagodas Pass residents commented that normally the military intelligence office has heightened security. However, when the unarmed group arrived, the troops appeared to be going through a rotation, and no one was there to protect the area.

“I think they [the armed group] have their own people [informers] in town as they know it was the time where they were rotating the security troops,” said one resident.

Kyaw Kyaw Aung was the military intelligence officer that was killed from the bomb blast. The nine-year-old girl was a victim of the bullets shot by the armed group in the surrounding area, say eye witnesses.

Win Soe, also a military intelligence officer, was wounded, as was a member of the New Mon State Party, who was inside the office at the time of the attack. Two motorbike taxi drivers, names still unknown, were also wounded.

Meanwhile, no armed group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Burmese authorities began tightening security in Three Pagodas Pass last week, after they received information that the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) had plans to attack the town.

The town was also attacked on November 8, 2010, one day after country held its national election, and the DKBA seized the town. After the town was seized by DKBA, the government troops withdrew several military and police checkpoints at the outskirts of town, afraid that the DKBA would attack. Currently, authorities have only tightened security near government offices.