EDITORIAL
The 276 Myanmar soldiers who entered Mizoram on Wednesday will be airlifted from Lengpui Airport near Aizawl soon, officials said on Thursday. Of the Myanmar army personnel who entered the Mizoram-Myanmar-Bangladesh border Bandukbanga village, also known as Bondukbangsora in southernmost Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district, 200 were being brought to Lunglei on Thursday, state home department officials said.
The officials said that 76 Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) members were taken to the proposed Mizoram-Myanmar border trade centre Zorinpui village where they will also be brought to Lunglei. They are most likely to be brought to Aizawl from Lunglei with Assam Rifles vehicles so that they can be airlifted by Myanmar air force transport planes from the lone Lengpui airport near Aizawl.
The Tatmadaw members are headed by a Colonel comprising 36 officers and 240 lower ranks, the officials said. The Myanmar army personnel fled one of their camps in southern Chin state after their camp was overrun and captured by the Arakan Army (AA) militants which have been waging war against Myanmar government since its formation on April 10, 2009. AA’s political wing is the United League of Arakan (ULA) and has at least 30,000 combatants.
Earlier, reports from Lawngtlai district said that the Myanmar soldiers arrived at Bandukbanga at around 4:00pm with arms and ammunition on Wednesday and were being taken care of by the Assam Rifles there. They were being taken to nearby Assam Rifles camp at Parva, near Myanmar-Bangladesh-India tri-junction.
The reports said that the Myanmar soldiers fled their camp situated across Parva village after the Arakan Army (AA) militants captured the military camp. It is, however, not yet known if the camp is in Paletwa of Chin state which was reportedly overran and captured by the AA militants on Sunday.
With the latest entry of Myanmar army personnel to Mizoram, 635 Myanmar soldiers had fled their country after their camps were overrun and captured by ethnic armed organisations and local civilian militia groups and crossed the international border seeking shelter inside the state.
Of them, 359 Myanmar soldiers have already been evacuated to their country. While 104 Myanmar army personnel have been evacuated from different places in Mizoram to Moreh in Manipur by Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters in three sorties during November, 255 Myanmar soldiers were evacuated from the lone Lengpui airport near Aizawl by Myanmar air force cargo/ transport planes on January 2 and January 9 to Sittwee (Akyab) port town, the capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, earlier known as Arakan state.
