At least six of the 14 persons aboard a Myanmar military aircraft were injured after it skidded off the runway at Mizoram’s Lengpui airport on Tuesday. The aircraft was sent to bring back the soldiers who had taken refuge in the northeastern state amid rebel group troubles in their nation.
Mizoram’s Director General of Police (DGP) said that the injured persons have been admitted to the Lengpui hospital for treatment.
#WATCH | Mizoram: Six people were injured after a plane from the Burmese Army crashed at Lengpui airport. 14 people were on board with the pilot. The injured were admitted to Lengpui Hospital: Mizoram DGP pic.twitter.com/aVscbDDoY4— ANI (@ANI) January 23, 2024
Lengpui’s table top runway — famous for being a challenging landing area — led to this incident.
India on Monday sent back 184 Myanmarese soldiers, who last week fled to Mizoram amid gunfights with an ethnic rebel group, to their own country. Confirming this, an Assam Rifles official said that a total 276 Myanmarese soldiers had entered the northeastern state last week.
The soldiers were flown from the Lengpui airport, in Myanmar air force planes, to Sittwe in the state of Rakhine. The remaining 92 soldiers were meant to be repatriated on Tuesday.
On January 17, the Myanmarese soldiers entered the Bandukbanga village, at the India-Myanmar-Bangladesh trijunction, in Mizoram’s southernmost district of Lawngtlai with arms and ammunition. Following this, they approached the Assam Rifles.
The soldiers had to escape from their country after their camp was taken over by ‘Arakan Army’ fighters.
An official said that these soldiers were then taken to an Assam Rifles camp nearby at Parva and later — most of them — were shifted to Lunglei. They were under the supervision of the Assam Rifles since then, the official added.
The soldiers were brought to Aizawl over the weekend so that they could be sent back to Myanmar. Their group, consisting of 36 officers and 240 lower-rank personnel, is headed by a colonel, officials noted.
So far, as many as 635 Myanmarese soldiers have fled to Mizoram after their camps were overrun and captured by ethnic rebel groups and pro-democratic forces. Of the count, 359 soldiers have been already sent back to their country, officials said.
In November last year, 104 Myanmarese Army personnel were to Manipur’s Moreh town from different places in Mizoram through Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters, and then repatriated.
Mizoram shares a 510 kilometer-long border with Myanmar.
(With PTI inputs)
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