New Delhi - A group which claims to be an armed organization named the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW) has confessed that the man who died in a bomb explosion in Rangoon's suburban township of Shwepyithar on October 19 was one of its members.

In an email message circulated among Burmese opposition groups in exile, the VBSW said it pays homage to their undercover member Thet Oo Win, who died at his Shwepyithar residence in a bomb explosion.

The group said Thet Oo Win, codenamed Thanlwin and carrying the private number 999954, was carrying out operations in Rangoon before he died. The group said Thet Oo Win was one among many of its members who pledged to fight violently against the oppressed rule of the military dictators.

"We honor our members, who have selflessly sacrificed themselves in the revolution, but we pledge that we will not stop the fight while the military junta continues its repression and refuses to recognize the 1990 election result and hand over power to the elected Members of Parliament," the VBSW said in the email statement.

The VBSW identified Thet Oo Win as a former monk who had actively participated in the 2007 September uprising and was involved in various anti-government activities since his high school days.

On October 19, a man was reported dead at his residence in Rangoon's suburban township of Shwepyithar. According to police the man was identified as Thet Oo Win, and was killed while improvising his own bomb.

Burma's state-run media, New Light of Myanmar, on October 21 reported that Thet Oo Win was a drunkard with no proper job, had entered into the Buddhist order and later lived as a layman. Following the September 2007 protests, he had allegedly illegally gone to the Thai-Burmese border.

The VBSW, which cannot be reached for comment or be independently verified to exist, earlier claimed responsibility for several blasts in Rangoon, including near a restaurant in downtown Rangoon in April and the blast at the office of the Shwepyithar Township Union Solidarity and Development Association in July.

Meanwhile, the New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday said police arrested a man named Tin Myint for making phone threats to the office of the Pabedan Township Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) on Friday.

The man reportedly threatened that he would blow up the Pabedan USDA office and Police station.

In recent months bomb blasts in military-ruled Burma have become increasingly common, with at least four blasts occurring in September.