Myanmar’s military government pardons 10,000 prisoners to mark Independence Day

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military government has pardoned nearly 10,000 prisoners to mark the 76th anniversary of gaining independence from Britain, but it wasn’t immediately clear if any of those released included the thousands of political detainees jailed for opposing army rule. State-run MRTV reported that the head of Myanmar’s military council, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, pardoned 9,652 prisoners to mark Thursday’s holiday. Prisoners’ relatives gathered from early morning at the gates of Insein Prison in Yangon, notorious for decades for housing political detainees. A group that monitors arrests says that more than 25,000  people have been arrested on political charges since the army seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021.