Even as heavy fighting between the Myanmar Army and the insurgent Arakan Army continues unabated in the civil war-ridden country’s Chin State, as many as 151 Tatmadaw (Myanmar Army) soldiers crossed over to locations within the Indian state of Mizoram on December 29.
According to reports shared by Indian security forces with the Union Home Ministry, the Myanmar Army soldiers fled to Tuisentlang in Lawngtlai in Mizoram in two batches.
While 83 soldiers crossed over with their weapons on December 29 afternoon, another group comprising 68 troops entered Mizoram in the evening.
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Indian security forces believe that many more Myanmar Army soldiers remain untraced in the dense forest areas on both the Indian and Myanmarese sides of the international border.
Units of the Assam Rifles guided the fleeing Tatmadaw soldiers into Tuisentlang. They were initially taken to Parva and Zorinpui company operating bases (COB) where they were body-searched and disarmed.
They would be sent back to Myanmar in the next few days after they are thoroughly questioned and examined to cull out “useful” information on the state of fighting in the Chin State.
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The Myanmar Army soldiers, including 13 officers “fled from their camps” located in Muilawa, Myuikwa and Meilangtlang in eastern Chin State before crossing over to Tuisentlang which is about 17.5 km from the trijunction and 1.5 km from the India-Myanmar border.
Indian security and intelligence sources operating in Mizoram disclosed that even as “heavy bombardment” by Myanmar Army attack helicopters and fighter jets continue in parts of the Chin State, the Arakan Army rebel forces seem “resolute in their action and continue to hold ground”.
While it is still not clear whether the Arakan Army insurgents have the upper hand on the battlefield, assessments by Indian security forces suggest that the rebels “have taken control of most of the Myanmar Army camps in the trijunction area” in the peripheral regions across the Indian border.
