The office of the Township Administrator in Phe Khon Township, Shan State has issued a notice on 3 August to alert the ward and village administrators that some extremist religious leaders from Indonesia has infiltrated into Myanmar. The ward and village administrators have distributed the letter to their respective local administrators three days later. That news was picked up by some local publication including the Bullet journal and they reported that “about 80 IS suspects are now based in Phe Khon”. The Kayan National Party (KNP), however, has said the news is incorrect. The party denied the claim in a statement. Also the leader of Kayinni Youth Congress Ko Kyaw Htin Aung said he thought the news was baseless. Later in a media briefing, a senior official of Ministry of Home Affairs said the news on the infiltration of IS into Phe Khon was not true. The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs U Tin Myint made the comment at a media briefing on 16 August, which was to reflect on the achievements by the ministry during the 100 day of the new government. U Tin Myint said “We have issued instruction for officials to be vigilant on possibility of IS coming into Myanmar and they were warned be extra cautious for security during key events, but as they are ethnic people not very fluent in Myanmar language they wrongly interpret our instruction as if the IS people already in the country”. However, if took the authorities two weeks to refute on a claim which is so sensitive and could affect the Muslims in Myanmar. Similarly, a senior police official made a claim that IS was recruiting 50 people from Myanmar through online contact. Police Colonel Kyaw Win Thein, a senior police officer in the National Police made the claim in August 2015. The government normally increased security in August coinciding with the commemorative events for 1988 public uprising. Reference: Source of BHRN