Myanmar has charged the Federation of Trade Union-Burma (FTUB), an anti-government organization in exile, with plotting to launch bomb attack, the government-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported on Friday.

The FTUB, led by Pyithit Nyunt Wai (alias) Maung Maung, was declared by the government on April 13 as one of the four terrorist organizations.

"At present, FTUB and cohorts are making plans to commit terrorist acts in cohort with aboveground political parties," the report said.

Altogether four people of the group have met secretly in Maesot, Thailand, for the plan according to information obtained on Wednesday, it said.

The Myanmar authorities issued warning on Thursday against possible terrorist attacks in three major cities of Yangon, Mandalay and Mawlamyine, publishing through official media general features of 19 wanted terrorists, including 15 bombers, and saying that they are being sent by another declared terrorist organization of the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) to these cities to carry out "terrorist and destructive acts that disturb peace and stability of the country".

The authorities has stepped up security measures in Yangon in the wake of such warning.

A number of bombing incidents occurred in Myanmar, especially in Yangon and Mandalay, in 2005, with two bombs blasting in March at a bus terminal in eastern Yangon and a hotel in downtown Yangon with no casualties.

However, the bomb explosion in the major market of Zay Cho in Mandalay on April 26 the same year killed two women and injured 15 others, and the deadly series of bomb attacks in Yangon against the Yangon Trade Center and two other shopping centers -- Junction- 8 and Dagon, on May 7 the same year, also killed 23 people and injured 150.

A minor explosion also occurred in front of the Traders Hotel in Yangon on October 21 in 2005 with no casualties reported.

During 2006, two bombs went up in Tamu, Sagaing division, injuring two people, while the one in central Toungoo caused no casualties.

The most recent series of five bombing incidents in downtown Yangon, which took place within an hour before dawn on April 20, resulted in no casualties but some minor damage to brick walls and window panes of some buildings.

Source: Xinhua