MYANMAR: Myanmar's junta cut the nation's internet and deployed extra troops around the country on Monday as fears built of a widespread crackdown on anti-coup protests, but defiant demonstrators again took to the streets.
The military has steadily escalated efforts to quell an uprising against their seizure of power two weeks ago, which saw civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi detained along with hundreds of other members of her democratically elected Government.
With protesters refusing to back down, the Generals imposed an internet shutdown on Monday morning and ratcheted up the military's presence across the country.
Extra troops were seen in key locations of Yangon, the nation's commercial hub and biggest city, including armoured personnel carriers near the central bank.
Live-stream images shared on social media platforms before the internet blackout showed more military vehicles and soldiers moving through others parts of the country.
However fresh protests again flared in Yangon on Monday morning, including near the central bank.
Hundreds of engineering and technology students protested in a northern district of Yangon, according to an AFP journalist.
Monitoring group NetBlocks initially said the "state-ordered information blackout" had taken Myanmar almost entirely offline.
However some internet services in Yangon resumed at the start of the working day, according to an AFP reporter in the city. Meanwhile, the military regime warned the public not to harbour fugitive political activists on Sunday after issuing arrest warrants for veteran democracy campaigners supporting massive nationwide anti-coup protests.
Security forces have stepped up arrests of doctors and others joining a civil disobedience movement that has seen huge crowds throng streets across big urban centres and isolated villages in mountainous frontier communities.
Meanwhile,Security forces in northern Myanmar arrested five journalists after firing at protesters in the city of Myitkyina on Sunday, according to local media.
"Five journalists covering the people protest in front of Buga electricity office in Myitkyina were arrested," said a Facebook post from The 74 Media, a media outlet based in the city.
A journalist at the scene told AFP that security forces used tear gas and then opened fire to disperse the crowd, but it was unclear whether they used rubber bullets or live rounds.
- AFP
