5 dead as religious rioting continues in central Myanmar town where mosque was torched

YANGON, Myanmar – At least five people have died and a mosque has been burned in two days of rioting in a central Myanmar town triggered by an argument between a Muslim shopkeeper and his Buddhist customers.

Police in the town of Meikhtila said Thursday that the casualty toll was hard to ascertain because the violence was continuing. The Myanmar police website said one of the dead was a Buddhist monk, while the website of the Eleven Media group said 22 were injured.

A nighttime curfew was declared Wednesday after the start of the rioting, which had no apparent direct links to deadly clashes last year in western Myanmar between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims.