Tipped off that the Hpakant jade mining city could be bombed the  Burmese military junta has reopened six military checkpoints on the Myitkyina-Hpakant Road in Kachin State of northern Burma to conduct vigorous checks. All travellers and goods are being checked since early October. The checkpoints were not operational for a long time, said local travellers.
 
The regime's checkpoints are at Maw Hpawng, Ka Mai, Ma-O Pyin, Nam Ya, Lonkin (Lawng Hkang) and Le Pyin villages on the main vehicular road between Myitkyina and Hpakant (Phakant), according to local jade traders in Myikyina, the capital of Kachin state.
 
Travellers are being made to stop at every military checkpoint and troops mainly check National Registration Cards (NRCs) or National Identity Cards (IDs) of all travellers and their belongings and goods, said a jade trader who came back to Myitkyina from Hpakant jade mining city last week.
 
Sources close to troops at the military checkpoints said, the reason for reopening military checkpoints and checking travellers' NRCs and belongs is because the Burmese Army has information that three persons have planned to bomb Hpakant jade mining city.
 
On the other hand, the junta authorities have stepped up blocking the flow of small amounts of jade from Hpakant to the China border along the Myitkyina-Laiza trade route, illegally, said local Kachin jade traders who rely on border jade trade.
 
Kachin jade traders added that soldiers at the Burmese military checkpoints on Myitkyina-Laiza Road seized several jade loaded trucks over the last three months. They were being exported to the China border through Laiza checkpoint, the area under the control of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).

In Burma, the junta has officially allowed selling Hpakant jade only at emporiums run by it over thrice a year in Rangoon, former capital of the country, according to a local jade trader.