Mizoram border on high alert as fighting in Myanmar intensifies
This has led to at least 5,900 refugees fleeing to India with reports of some of them dying during the trek and some getting injured, who are being treated at hospitals in Mizoram.
The Chin National Army and Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) – two factions of the rebel forces that are fighting the Myanmar military junta- are engaged in an intense fight for control of areas in Myanmar just across the border.
Officials in Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police said that during one such gunfight, bullets and shelling spilled across to the Indian side in the border town of Zokhawthar in Champhai district. The residents of several villages in other towns across Eastern Mizoram have seen gunfight and grenade attacks happen right in front of them across the porous border.
The most intense gunfight, lasting several hours, was reported on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
'On Saturday, the fighting had started in the Myanmar areas of Rikhawdar, Satawm, and Khawmawi. Over the last two days, the fighting has spread to other parts of Myanmar such as Leilet and Tedim. These too are areas that share a border with Mizoram. There were hours of intense gunfight (small firearms), mortar fire, and grenade attacks. Some of the people injured in the gunfight were also brought to Mizoram state government's district hospital in Champhai,' said one officer, who asked not to be named.
At least one refugee, officials said, also died on Sunday while trying to cross the Tiao river, which serves as the border between the two countries. 'We have reports of one Mizoram national also who died in the gunfight earlier this week and three other no-verified cases of drowning,' an official from the home department said.
HT tried to contact Champhai's district magistrate and superintendent of police for a response but the two officials were not available for any comments.
Over the last three years, after the 2021 military coup, over 30,000 Myanmar nationals have entered Mizoram. But most government agencies working on the ground say that the actual figure could be two or three times the official data
Confirming the fresh influx of nearly 6,000 refugees in the last one week, Malsawmliana, general secretary of the Central Young Mizo Association, said, 'Central YMA has extended aid to the refugees displaced by the ongoing misunderstanding and disunity among the Zo ethnic groups in Chin state of Myanmar. ₹3 lakh has been sanctioned to YMA Zokhawthar branch to procure food, while another ₹2 lakh has been sent to Vaphai branch.'
YMA is one of Mizoram's most influential civil society organisations, which has been taking care of the refugees since the military coup in Myanmar.
Security agencies believe the large influx of refugees could be a potential internal security problem in the coming years. Though there are checkpoint and integrated check posts at different points along the Indo-Myanmar border, through which nationals of both India and Myanmar (living within 10km in border areas) can enter and stay temporarily after submitting specific documents, the refugees are entering through other points along the porous border - most common being the shallow parts of the Tiao river. The Centre has started work to build a border fence along the India-Myanmar border to stop the infiltration. But this is a project, which could take years.
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