A powerful explosion at dawn on March 19 in Lashio, the capital of Shan State North, left a one and-a-half feet wide and two feet deep crater, according to sources coming to the Sino-Burma border.

It also blew a gaping hole in one wall of the badminton court nearby. Nobody in Panglom Quarter aka Quarter No. 6 was reported hurt. The explosion took place at 04:13 hours.

Suspicion was cast on the United Wa State Army, with which the Burmese Army had been maintaining an increasingly uneasy peace since late last year.

On March 10, nine days earlier, eight men coming from the Wa capital Panghsang, five of them believed to be Chinese nationals, were detained by the Military Affairs Security (MAS), the successor to the defunct Military Intelligence Service (MIS). “They were accused as contracted manufacturers of arms in the Wa weapons factory,” said a source close to the military. “As far as I know, they are still under custody.”

Others said that the bomb blast could have been the handiwork of some other armed groups, including disenchanted members of the Burmese Army itself. “The Wa would have placed it elsewhere where they could inflict serious damage to the military,” said a businessman who is familiar with the Wa.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility.

Northern Shan State, apart from the Burmese Army and militia units under its control, has five ceasefire groups: the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) simply known as Kokang, Shan State Army (SSA) North, Kachin Defense Army (KDA) and Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

AFP meanwhile reported that one man was killed and two women injured yesterday when a bomb exploded at a guest house in Rangoon’s North Okkalapa Township.