The activists had earlier identified the man as lawyer Aye Myint, an NLD member in his early 50s previously sentenced to seven years in prison for reporting government labor abuses to the International Labor Organization.

They said the confusion came up because of the similarity in their names.

‘The one arrested (Saturday) was Myint Aye, a former NLD chairman of Kyeemyintdaing Township,’ said NLD member Su Su Nway.

‘I made contact with Aye Myint last night. He was not arrested,’  she said.

Myanmar’s junta has detained six activists since Wednesday. The first three were picked up just hours before a celebration to mark the 18th anniversary of the formation of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party.

Aside from Myint Aye, the other five activists arrested were all student leaders who led a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 to demand an end to decades of military rule.

The five -- Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Htay Kywe, Min Zeyya and Pyone Cho -- have all spent at least a decade in prison for their role in the uprising, which was violently suppressed by the military.

No reason has been given by Myanmar’s military government for the activists’ detention. Officials who arrested them usually said only that they were wanted for ‘discussions’ with the authorities.

The United Nations has estimated there are some 1,100 political prisoners in Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962 and was formerly known as Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the most famous among them. She has spent more than a decade in detention, and is currently under house arrest in Yangon.