India to send back 276 Myanmarese soldiers who took refuge in Mizoram last week

Aizawl: India will send back 276 Myanmarese soldiers who fled to Mizoram last week following gunfights with an ethnic insurgent group, an official said on Sunday. With this repatriation, which will continue for two days ( Monday and Tuesday), more than 600 Myanmarese soldiers who fled to Mizoram will be sent back to their country, the official added.

The 276 personnel will be airlifted by Myanmar Air Force planes from the Lengpui airport near Aizawl to Sittwe in the neighbouring country's Rakhine state, the Assam Rifles official told PTI.

They 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, she said.

They were taken to the nearby Assam Rifles camp at Parva, and later the majority of them were shifted to Lunglei, she added. 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, she said.

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

Since November, 635 Myanmar soldiers have fled their country and entered 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.

While 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 in November, 255 soldiers were moved via the Lengpui airport by Myanmar air force planes on January 2 and January 9, they said. Mizoram shares a 510-km-long border with Myanmar.