Real vs. Fake News
Mingalabar! Welcome to Than Lwin Times’ Real vs. Fake News program.
This program will verify misleading information shared on social media during the anti-dictatorship movements that followed the military coup.
We will verify the contents distributed along with photos containing incitement of religious hatred, which have been spread by pro-junta fake accounts that say, “The explosion of the Than Lwin Bridge (Hpa-an) checkpoint was a targeted bomb attack on pilgrims who came to the consecration of the Buddha image built by the junta leader in Nay Pyi Taw”.
The army-backed Telegram accounts of DGF21NEWS, Ba Nyunt and Nyein Oo, We Love Myanmar, and Myo Chit spread propaganda on July 30 and 31.
The Than Lwin Times looked into the post and found it to be misinformation, hiding the truth of
the incident.
The Than Lwin Bridge checkpoint is a gate manned by regime troops, and is notorious for arresting travelers without reason every day, extorting money from drivers and delaying their journeys, confiscating identity cards and demanding ransom money, and arresting travelers accusing them of being members of People’s Defense Forces.
The resistance forces targeted the checkpoint because junta battalions, police forces, and non-CDM immigration staff were stationed there, according to Hpa-an Guerilla Force and independent media outlets.
Seven junta soldiers were injured, one civilian was killed, and three were injured in the attack, reported the BBC, citing sources close to the military council.
The content circulated by military supporters is nothing more than sensitive religious propaganda that might spark conflict among ethnic groups.
Hpa-an GUERILLA FORCE’s statement
https://shorturl.at/ciW79
BBC’s report
https://shorturl.at/mpwIJ
Myanmar Now’s report
https://shorturl.at/qrzP5
According to the reliable sources mentioned above, “the explosion of the Than Lwin Bridge (Hpa-an) checkpoint was a targeted bomb attack on pilgrims who came to the consecration of the Buddha image built by the junta leader in Nay Pyi Taw” is merely false information spread by junta supporters.
Than Lwin Times
