MYANMAR'S military government granted amnesty to more than 3,000 prisoners today to mark the traditional lunar new year holiday, but it was not immediately clear if those released included the thousands of political detainees locked up for opposing army rule.

State-run MRTV television reported that the State Administration Council, the ruling body created by the military after it seized power in 2021, had pardoned 3,113 prisoners, including 98 foreigners who will be deported.

An official from Yangon’s Insein Prison said that the number and names of people to be freed from the country’s largest penitentiary was not yet known.

The releases began today, but sometimes can take a few days to be completed.

Some 17,460 political detainees, including Myanmar’s former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were in detention as of last Wednesday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent organisation that keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the nation’s political conflicts.

Myanmar has been under military rule since February 1 2021, when its army ousted Ms Suu Kyi’s elected government. The takeover was met with massive non-violent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia freed 104 prisoners captured in its war in Yemen earlier today.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it flew 48 detainees from Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport heading to Sanaa, Yemen’s capital that has been held for years by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.