Myanmar Army flies back remaining 92 soldiers from Mizoram

AIZAWL: Myanmar Army authorities on Wednesday took back their remaining 92 soldiers, a day after Myanmarese Air Force aircraft, which came to Mizoram to evacuate them, skidded off the tabletop runway of the Lengpui airport here, injuring eight of the 14 crew members.

Officials said that an ATR aircraft of Myanmar Air Force, in two sorties, evacuated the 92 Myanmar soldiers and 14 crew members of Tuesday’s plane.

“All necessary formalities including collection of biometric details of the Myanmar military personnel have been conducted. Necessary medical support was also given to the soldiers and the eight injured crew members," an official said.

The 276 Myanmar Army personnel took refuge in Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district on January 17 after their camps were captured by the Arakan Army militants.

The Myanmar soldiers, with their arms and ammunition, reached Bandukbanga village, situated on the Mizoram-Myanmar-Bangladesh border trijunction, in Lawngtlai and were taken to Assam Rifles' Parva camp in the district.

"A Myanmar Air Force transport plane from Mandalay (Myanmar) landed at Lengpui airport on Monday (Jan 22) and evacuated 184 Myanmar soldiers to Sittwe (Akyab) in two sorties and the remaining 92 Myanmar soldiers were supposed to be airlifted on Tuesday but could not done due to the aircraft accident," a senior official told IANS.

Officials said that out of the 14 people who were on board the medium size aircraft along with the pilot, eight were injured, who were immediately rushed to Lengpui hospital and subsequently discharged.

Due to the faulty landing and the overshoot from the runway, the plane was partially damaged. Mizoram disaster management officials, along with the district administration and police officials, rushed to the Lengpui airport, 30 km from Aizawl, and rescued the injured crew. A

Following the accident, all Lengpui airport-bound flights were either cancelled or diverted. Normal flight operations were resumed on Wednesday.

With the latest influx, the number of soldiers who fled Myanmar since November 13 last year after their camps were overrun by the ethnic armed groups and took refuge in India's Mizoram, had increased to 636. Earlier in several phases all the Myanmar Army personnel were sent back to their country.

Due to the fighting between the Army and the pro-democracy forces thousands of Myanmar civilians including women and children also fled to Mizoram in the recent months. The first influx from Myanmar happened in February 2021 after the Military junta seized power there. Since then, over 32,000 people, including women and children, have taken shelter in the northeastern state from Myanmar.