Aizawl: Eighty four Myanmar Army personnel, who fled to Mizoram last Friday, were airlifted from the state’s lone airport Lengpui Airport on Tuesday.
The 84 army personnel were part of a group of 151 soldiers and officers who had entered Tuisentlang village in Mizoram on the Myanmar border.
Of the 151 soldiers, 147 had been brought to Aizawl from the Assam Rifles camp at Parva via Lunglei on Monday. Four others are critically injured.
A home department official in Mizoram said that the remaining 67 Myanmar army personnel will be airlifted from Lengpui airport on Tuesday to Akyab.
“The arrangements were made in a negotiation between the Ministry of External Affairs and the Myanmar military junta to airlift the Myanmar soldiers from Aizawl to Akyab,” he said.
All the arms being brought to Mizoram by the Myanmar army personnel, while fleeing their camp in Myanmar following attacks by the Arakan Army (AA) militants, are also being brought back in the flights.
At least 151 Myanmar army personnel entered Mizoram-Myanmar border Tuisentlang village in southernmost Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district late Friday.
The Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) members fled their camp called Myeik Wa Camp Point 377 in Chin state of Myanmar adjoining Mizoram after the Arakan Army (AA) militants overran and captured the military camp at around noon on Friday last.
The first batch of Myanmar Army’s 83 personnel first entry came from Myeik Wa Camp Point 377. They belonged to the Light Infantry Regiment-61,62,583 and 586 comprising 12 officers and 71 other ranks.
They were carrying 83 weapons comprising 53 rifles, 11 pistols, 2 Rocket propelled grenades (RPG), 2 Mortars, 2 Sniper rifles, 2 Medium Machine Guns (MMGs), 5 Light Machine Guns (LMGs) and 171 numbers of hand grenades.
The second group of 68 Myanmar army personnel, also from Myeik Wa Camp Point 377 and are from the same LIR.
They comprised 9 officers and 59 soldiers belonging to other ranks.
The weapons they brought inside Mizoram were 40 rifles, six pistols, two RPGs, two Mortars, 2 sniper rifles and 203 hand grenades.
With the entry of 151 Myanmar army personnel on Friday the number of Myanmar soldiers who have crossed over to Mizoram rose to 255 after their camps along the Mizoram border in Chin state were overrun aby pro-democratic forces and underground militants.
Officials said that 104 Myanmar army personnel who crossed the international border and entered the state from Rihkhawdar, Khawmawi and Tuibual army camps in Chin state of Myanmar adjoining Mizoram, were earlier airlifted to Moreh town in Manipur from where they were further evacuated to Myanmar by the military authorities in November last year.
