Aizawl, Jan 21 (UNI): Myanmar soldiers who fled to India’s Mizoram after their camps were overrun by rebels will be airlifted on Monday, officials said on Sunday.
Mizoram Home Department officials said that the Myanmar Air Force transport plane is most likely to airlift and evacuate 276 Myanmar army personnel from the lone Lengpui airport near Aizawl.
The officials said that the Myanmar Air Force cargo plane will be coming from Mandalay City, and the Myanmar soldiers will be transported to Sittwe (Akyab), the capital port town of Rakhine State in Myanmar.
All the 276 Myanmar army personnel being hosted by the Assam Rifles at Parva and Zorinpui have been brought to Aizawl via Lunglei and are lodged at the Zokhawsang Assam Rifles headquarters near Aizawl, where they are proposed to be shifted from the centre of Aizawl city.
The Myanmar soldiers entered Mizoram-Myanmar border Bandukbanga village in southernmost Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district on Wednesday last after Khankha Mountain 979 Myanmar military base in southern Chin state was overran and captured by the Arakan Army (AA) militants on the same day.
The armed Myanmar soldiers included 36 army officers headed by a colonel and 240 other ranks. They will be evacuated along with the weapons they were carrying when they entered the state.
Myanmar Air Force transport planes have already evacuated 255 Myanmar soldiers from Lengpui airport to Sittwe earlier. This will be the third time Myanmar soldiers are to be airlifted from Mizoram by a Myanmar Air Force cargo plane from Lengpui airport to Sittwe.
With the latest entry of Myanmar army personnel to Mizoram, 635 Myanmar soldiers had fled their country after their camps were overran and captured by ethnic armed organizations and local civilian militia groups and crossed the international border seeking shelter inside the state.
Of these, 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.
After this, 255 Myanmar soldiers were evacuated from the Lengpui airport by Myanmar Air Force cargo and transport planes on January 2 and 9 to Sittwee (Akyab) port town, the capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, earlier known as Arakan state.
