Religious tension grips Myanmar

Police in Myanmar fired warning shots to break up scuffles between Buddhist nationalists and Muslims in Myanmar's biggest city in the early hours of yesterday after a crowd went hunting for "illegal" Rohingya.

The incident comes as nationalists from Myanmar's Buddhist majority have become increasingly vocal in their opposition to the country's hard-pressed Muslim minority.

Police in Yangon said they were forced to fire in the air to break up the confrontation between dozens of hardliners, including several monks, and local Muslims that left at least one man injured.

Late on Tuesday night a group of nationalists complained to police that several Rohingya, pejoratively known as "Bengalis," were illegally hiding in a house in Yangon's Mingalar Taung Nyunt township. Tempers started to fray when police who had gone to investigate refused to arrest the men, saying they were local, non-Rohingya Muslims who were allowed to be there.

"While they (the nationalists) were complaining to the police, Muslims from the area gathered and the groups started quarrelling," said one officer on condition of anonymity.

"Although police asked both sides to go back, they punched each other. So police fired shots in the air to disperse the groups."