After battle with junta, Myanmar rebels take control of border point with India
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A flag of one of the rebel groups fighting Myanmar’s junta is installed in Khawmawi village on the India-Myanmar border on Nov 14.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
ZOKHAWTHAR, India – Two days after rebel forces in Myanmar’s Chin state overran the junta’s two military bases close to the border with India, they have taken control of a border crossing point between the two countries across the tiny, hilly Indian state of Mizoram.
Most of the nearly 5,000 Myanmar nationals who fled to India to escape intense fighting between the rebels and Myanmar military since early Monday morning have returned home as the situation has calmed down, according to local leaders.
Rebel forces intend to take control of part of the porous border with India.
Myanmar’s generals are facing their biggest test
The offensive, named “Operation 1027” by rebels after the date it began, initially made inroads in junta-controlled areas on the border with China in Shan state, where the military authorities have lost control of several towns and more than 100 security outposts.
Since then, fighting has spread to two new fronts
While calm largely returned to the serene valley along the Indo-Myanmar border on Wednesday afternoon, air raid sirens could be heard in India’s Zokhawthar village from the Myanmar side, warning residents of potential strikes by the military.
Surrounded by lush green hills, the Chin flag was hoisted on a gate that welcomed visitors to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar at the Zokhawthar border crossing.
India’s Assam Rifles paramilitary force and armed rebels on the Myanmar side guarded the two ends of the border bridge over Tiau River, which people crossed freely on Wednesday.
A source in the Chinland Defence Force group said it would guard the border with two other rebel groups – the People’s Defence Force and the Chin National Army.
“We will also guard another strategic location nearby,” he said.
Mr Ramtharnghaka, president of the local Zokhawthar chapter of the civil society group Young Mizo Association, said most of the Myanmar nationals who crossed over were from nearby towns.
“While some stayed at a community hall, others were taken in by their friends and relatives,” he said, adding that most have now gone back.
Among those fleeing the violence near Zokhawthar on Monday were 43 Myanmar soldiers who escaped the surprise attack
The Indian authorities eventually sent most of them back by flying them to another border crossing point a few hundred kilometres east. REUTERS
