AIZAWL: Two more Myanmarese soldiers have entered Mizoram on Tuesday evening raising the total number of personnel from the Myanmar army and police fleeing for safety to the Indian territory to 45, a police officer said.
The Myanmar soldiers have crossed over to Mizoram and came to the nearest police station at Zokhawthar, the first border village in Mizoram from Myanmar’s Khawmawi, after their camps were overrun by anti-junta militia groups-People’s Defence Force (PDF) on Monday, the police officer said.
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40 soldiers crossed over the international border and came to Zokhawthar police station along with their arms on Monday evening, he said.
Three more came to Zokhawthar police station on Tuesday noon and two others in the evening, he said.
He said that the Myanmarese soldiers were handed over to the Assam Rifles, who guards the Indo-Myanmar border, and all of them were airlifted to a safer place.
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Initially, 39 soldiers were airlifted to a safer place by Assam Rifles on Tuesday and the remaining 6 have also been evacuated subsequently, he said.
A home department official, who is familiar with the matter, said that the Myanmarese soldiers were flown by choppers from Hnahlan in Champhai district to Moreh, a border town in Manipur, from where they were sent to Tamu, the nearest Myanmarese town from Moreh.
Police said that the situation along the Indo-Myanmar border remained calm on Wednesday as no armed clashes had been reported.
However, the situation is still volatile as it is not known whether or not the Myanmar army will launch another attack in retaliation.
Over 5000 people from Khawmawi and Rihkhawdar villages in Chin state, the epicenter of the recent clashes and also from surrounding villages have fled and sought shelter in Zokhawthar following intense gunfight between the Myanmar army and PDF.
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The gunfight began on Sunday evening and continued till Monday evening when the pro-democracy militia groups attacked two Myanmar army camps at Khawmawi and Rihkhawdar close to the Indian border in order to overrun them.
Champhai deputy commissioner James Lalrinchhana said that the two military camps were overrun by members of PDF after an intense gunfight on Monday.
He said that the Myanmar army also launched retaliatory airstrikes targeting the militias.
Khawmawi is just a few distance from Zokhawthar in Mizoram and the two border villages are separated by Tieu river, which runs along the Indo-Myanmar border.
Rihkhawdar is about 4 kilometers from Zokhawthar in Mizoram.
Zokhawthar village council president Lalmuanpuia claimed that at least seven members of PDF have been reportedly killed in the clashes.
20 injured people were brought to Champhai district hospital in Mizoram and 8 of them were referred to and admitted at two private hospitals in Aizawl, he said.
Mizoram shares a 510-km long porous international border with Myanmar.
Mizoram has hosted more than 31,000 refugees from the neighbouring country, who fled after the military coup in February 2021, before the recent clashes.
The Myanmar nationals, who took shelter in Mizoram, are from the Chin community.
The Chins and Mizos belong to the same Zo ethnic group.