vehicles ablaze, and damaged markets and cinemas. Government buildings, including the Ministry of Cooperatives, Road Transport Corporation, and the Housing Board were also damaged. An official government report states that "38 offices, 4 police stations, 11 cinemas, 65 cars, 4 motorcycles, a diesel train, and 15 traffic posts" were damaged. The authorities declared martial law and a state of emergency at 4 p.m. Troops entered the city along with armored cars and tanks. With "brutal efficiency", the army fired upon crowds and arrested protesters. State-controlled media described the situation as widespread "mob rule". A curfew was imposed from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and special courts were established to swiftly mete out punishments to those involved. According to the government, 2,887 persons were arrested, while Taylor reports that 1,800 arrests were made. Fatality figures are also uncertain. While the official figures of dead and wounded, as reported by Taylor, were 9 dead and 74 injured, other sources paint a much more grim picture: End of the crisis The violence died down by 15 December, and the military's lockdown on the city eased over the week that followed. House searches and arrests still occurred. 2,000 were questioned, half of whom were students, but unofficial figures ran as high as 7,000. According to official figures, 196 were jailed for rioting and destroying public property, and 100 to 200 were charged with treason. The political implications of the incident mainly revolve around the state of the BSPP government and its reliance on the military to exercise its power. Arumugam argues that the riots were evidence of "urban discontent over the government's failure to provide the people with adequate basic necessities", and more broadly demonstrated that the BSPP had failed to fully develop into a people's party. Selth argues that "outside the armed forces, the regime could not claim the allegiance of any significant social group and that the BSPP's urban cadre failed to enforce law and order as it had to rely on the army to stop the riots." Moreover, he argues that the events showed a lack of "viable alternative leadership able to replace Ne Win and his supporters", and that even the monks had failed to use the protests to effectively challenge the government. Taylor similarly notes that the 1974 crisis was one of the last student-led political uprisings until the end of Ne Win's rule, except for protests during the