Chiang Mai - Burma's state media on Tuesday blamed a bomb blast on Sunday evening that killed a man in Rangoon's suburban township of Shwepyithar on the victim himself.

The military-junta's official mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, on Tuesday said Thet Oo Win, identified as a former Buddhist monk who participated in the Saffron Revolution, was killed while improvising a bomb at his residence.

The paper said a police investigation into the incident found an assortment of bomb-making material, including a 9-volt dry cell battery fastened with a wire, damaged pieces of lithium batteries, six electronic detonators and ammonium nitrate, inside Thet Oo Win's house.

"According to the items found at the scene, his injuries and the way he lost his life, it has been determined that the blast occurred while Thet Oo Win was improvising a bomb," the paper said.

A former monk who initially fled from Burma after being involved in the September 2007 protests, the paper said Thet Oo Win later made his way back to Rangoon.

The paper also noted the victim might have been involved in a bomb blast on Maha Bandoola Street on September 25 that injured seven people.

"The type of gunpowder, dry cells and other related items found in the blast that wounded seven people in Maha Bandoola Park on 25 September and those found at the house of Thet Oo Win are the same. So, he may have been involved in that bomb blast also," the paper said.

Burma, which has been ruled by a military government since 1962, has in recent months seen an increasing number of bomb blasts, particularly in the former capital city of Rangoon. In September alone, four blasts occurred in Rangoon, injuring at least seven people.

Typically, each time a blast occurs, the military government is quick in pointing a finger at opposition groups, including members of detained Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party – National League for Democracy (NLD), and border-based ethnic armed rebel groups who are fighting for self-determination.

Similarly, the junta accused a human rights activist, Myint Aye, and members of the NLD for a bomb blast in early July at the office of a pro-junta civilian organization, Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), in Shwepyithar Township.

However, despite the junta's claims, some critics and observers believe that the opposition is not in any position to carry out such acts amidst the tightly controlled security environment.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a military analyst based at the Sino-Burmese border, said opposition groups including armed resistant groups are not likely to have penetrated Rangoon and other major cities in Burma, as the junta maintains a tightly knit security apparatus.

"I think they [the junta] are behind all the blasts and are masterminding them," Aung Kyaw Zaw added.

In most of the major cities in Burma, including Rangoon, authorities maintain tight control over security and closely monitor the movement of the people. Local residents in Rangoon said they are even required to inform and submit national identity cards to local authorities for an overnight stay at a relative's house.

The NLD, while denying their involvement in violent activities, also accuses the junta for failing to bring the culprits to justice.

"The increasing number of blasts is causing panic among civilians, and it is the duty of the government to apprehend the people responsible for the blasts," Nyan Win, NLD spokesperson, commented.

Win Min, a Burmese analyst based in Thailand, said it is almost impossible for opposition groups in Rangoon as well as armed resistant groups based along the border to have carried out any kind of explosion in light of the existing security measures taken by the junta.

"Looking at the increasing instances where the junta has arrested activists by accusing them to be responsible for the blasts, it leaves us to think that the junta itself is behind the blasts or are carefully planning them in order to allow the government to suppress activists," Win Min remarked.

Previously, several NLD youth members were arrested and charged with carrying out explosions in the country made possible through funds acquired from exile-based opposition groups, including the Thailand-based Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB).

The junta's Police Chief, Khin Yi, during a rare press conference held in Burma's new capital Naypyitaw in September, also claimed exile-based opposition groups had announced a reward to people who carry out bombings across the country.

"It is clear that the junta is using this as a chance to crack down on activists," Win Min further speculated.

Aung Thu Nyien, a former student activist who now analyses Burmese affairs, said that while the groups behind the blasts seem unidentifiable, the blasts give the junta a convenient excuse to crack down on activists.

However, while most opposition groups both inside and outside Burma deny any accusations made by the junta regarding their abetting in a campaign of violence, there is one group, the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW), who claim to be carrying out bombings in protest against the military government's continued rule.

VBSW, which claimed responsibility for the blast at the USDA office in Shwepyithar on July 1 and an earlier blast in April near a restaurant in downtown Rangoon, occasionally releases press statements, posted on the blogspots of opposition activists, stating that they will continue to carry out bomb blasts in the country to remind the junta that they are not pleased with their rule.

VBSW, however, said it will only target the junta and members of its puppet organizations, including the USDA and Swan Arrshin, but will not harm the people. The group also previously claimed responsibility for several other blasts, among them the bombing of the Panorama Hotel on Pansodan Street in Rangoon in 2005.

The existence of the VBSW, though, cannot be independently verified as they remain unreachable.

While the junta and opposition groups continue to play the blame-game, the increasing number of blasts, particularly in Rangoon, has spread panic among civilians who worry that their homes might be the next target for the blasts.

A local resident in Rangoon said he would like to believe the junta's version of the October 19 explosion that stipulates Thet Oo Win was killed while improvising a bomb and was likely responsible for blasts throughout the capital.

"But if the government's claims are false we have reason to be worried, because we don't know when our houses may be targeted," the local resident fretted.