Myanmar police uncover religious bomb plot

Myanmar police today said they had arrested three people suspected of planning bomb attacks on mosques, as the country grapples with religious tensions after waves of anti-Muslim violence.
The suspects are all Buddhist men from the western state of Rakhine, where two bouts of unrest last year left scores dead and some 140,000 displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims.
"They were planning to plant bombs at mosques, after attending training on the border in Karen state," a police official in Yangon told AFP on condition of anonymity, referring to the country's eastern frontier.
He said authorities were continuing to investigate the "ongoing case".

Myanmar remains tense after eruptions of religious conflict that have killed around 250 people and cast a shadow over much-praised political reforms.
A report in the state-run New Light of Myanmar today said an initial raid on a guesthouse in the Yangon area found one 34-year-old suspect "red-handed making bombs with gunpowder and related materials" on November 13.

It said further investigations led police to arrest two more suspects, aged 31 and 28, early Saturday.
The English-language newspaper said one of the men had received training on the border and had received "two ready-to-use" mines and a pack of gunpowder.

It said the intended target was "religious buildings" and police were still hunting further suspects.
Myanmar was rattled by a series of explosions in October that the United States denounced as "acts of terror", including one at the luxury Traders Hotel in Yangon that injured an American woman.
No group claimed responsibility but authorities said suspects arrested at the time were linked to ethnic Karen rebels.
There were two rounds of unrest in Rakhine in June and October 2012, with fighting largely between local Buddhists and the Rohingya minority. Clashes were later reported in other areas.
Last week the arrival of a delegation from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for a tour of the country, including Rakhine, sparked protests led by Buddhist monks.

Humanitarian workers have faced threats and harassment for trying to help in Muslim camps.
Radical monks have been accused of fuelling the violence with anti-Muslim rhetoric, while witnesses to violence in central Myanmar in March said some attackers were dressed in clerical robes.
Myanmar views its population of s0ome 800,000 Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and denies them citizenship.