India sends back 184 Myanmar soldiers who fled to Mizoram

Aizawl, Jan 23 (PTI) India sent back 184 Myanmarese soldiers to their own country after they fled to Mizoram last week following gunfights with an ethnic insurgent group, an official said on Tuesday.

A total of 276 Myanmarese soldiers had entered Mizoram last week, and of them, 184 were sent back on Monday, the Assam Rifles official said.

They were flown on Myanmar air force planes from the Lengpui airport near Aizawl to Sittwe in the neighbouring country’s Rakhine state, she said.

The remaining 92 soldiers will be repatriated on Tuesday, she added.

The Myanmarese soldiers entered Bandukbanga village, located at the India-Myanmar-Bangladesh trijunction, in southernmost Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district with arms and ammunition on 17 January and approached the Assam Rifles.

They fled to Mizoram after their camp was overrun and captured by ‘Arakan Army’ fighters.

The Myanmarese soldiers were taken to the nearby Assam Rifles camp at Parva, and later the majority of them were shifted to Lunglei, the official said.

They have been under the supervision of the Assam Rifles since then, the official said.

These 276 soldiers were brought to Aizawl over Saturday and Sunday, for their transport to Myanmar from the Lengpui airport.

The group is headed by a colonel, and has 36 officers and 240 lower-rank personnel, officials said.

With the 276 soldiers who entered last week, as many as 635 Myanmar soldiers have fled to Mizoram after their camps were overrun and captured by ethnic armed organisations and pro-democratic forces, officials said.

Of them, 359 soldiers have already been sent back to their country, they said.

In November, 104 Myanmar army personnel were sent to the border town of Moreh in Manipur from different places in Mizoram by Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters, and then repatriated. Earlier this month, 255 soldiers were sent back via the Lengpui airport by Myanmar air force planes.

Mizoram shares a 510-km-long border with Myanmar.