More than 600 people held by Burmese security forces during protests against the country’s February 1 military coup were released on Wednesday (24), a local prison official told AFP news agency .
Several buses full of prisoners left Insein prison in the morning, said witnesses to the release, who included lawyers for some of the prisoners.
The military government has yet to rule on the case.
“The released are those arrested because of the protests, as well as night prisons or those who were out to buy something,” said a member of a legal advisory group who said he saw the buses leave.
The militant group Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP) says at least 2,000 people have been arrested as part of the military crackdown on protests against the February 1 coup.
Many businesses have been closed in Rangoon and few vehicles have been seen on the roads of the country’s largest city, witnesses said, after a call by pro-democracy activists for a silent protest.
The protest comes after a seven-year-old girl was killed when she was hit in her home by one of the shots fired by police at protesters. According to the AAPP, another 275 people have been victims of repression since the coup in the country.
The military junta has been internationally condemned for the coup that interrupted Myanmar’s slow transition to democracy and its crackdown on the protests that followed