Aizawl: A total of 104 Myanmarese soldiers, who fled to Mizoram due to armed clashes with pro-democratic forces, have been sent back to their country, an Assam Rifles officer said on Wednesday.
With this, more than 350 Myanmar soldiers, who fled to Mizoram due to intense gunfights with resistance groups, have been evacuated to their country by Indian defence authorities in barely three months between November last year and January this year.
The Assam Rifles officers said that the last batch of 104 Myanmarese soldiers were airlifted from Aizawl to Sittwe in Myanmar by the Myanmar Air Force on Tuesday.
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The Myanmar soldiers, also known as the ‘Tatmadaw,’ crossed the Indian border and entered Lungpuk in south Mizoram’s Siaha district on 6 January, she said.
They fled their camps and approached Assam Rifles, which guards the Indo-Myanmar border, following armed clashes with pro-democratic forces, she said.
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A total of 359 Myanmar soldiers have so far escaped to Mizoram and sent back to their country following gunfights with pro-democratic militias and ethnic insurgent groups since November last year.
In November, a total of 104 Myanmar soldiers fled to Mizoram in batches after their military camps along the Myanmar-India border were overrun by pro-democracy militias- People’s Defence Force (PDF).
They were airlifted by the Indian Airforce to Moreh in Manipur, from where they crossed the international border and entered Tamu, the nearest border town in Myanmar.
Earlier this month, a total of 151 Myanmar army personnel were sent back to Myanmar from Aizawl.
The 151 personnel entered Mizoram and approached Assam Rifles at Tuisentlang in southernmost Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district on December 29 after their camps near the Indian border were overrun by an ethnic insurgent group- Arakan Army fighters.