Today, a Myanmar military aircraft experienced a runway mishap at Mizoram’s Lengpui Airport during a mission to evacuate Myanmar army personnel who had sought refuge in the northeastern state due to intense clashes with rebel groups in their home country.
The challenging nature of the tabletop runway at Lengpui contributed to the aircraft skidding off the runway during its landing.
On Monday, India facilitated the return of at least 184 Myanmarese soldiers. An official statement from the Assam Rifles confirmed that a total of 276 Myanmarese soldiers had entered Mizoram last week, and on Monday, 184 of them were repatriated to Myanmar.
The soldiers had entered Bandukbanga village at the India-Myanmar-Bangladesh trijunction in Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district on January 17, seeking assistance from the Assam Rifles after their camp had been overrun and captured by the ‘Arakan Army,’ a Myanmarese insurgent group advocating for an independent Rakhine State, forcing them to flee to Mizoram.
Upon their arrival, the Myanmarese soldiers were initially taken to the Assam Rifles camp at Parva and later relocated to Lunglei for supervision. The repatriation process began with the group being airlifted on Myanmar Air Force planes from Lengpui airport near Aizawl to Sittwe in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
An official from the Assam Rifles stated that the remaining 92 soldiers would be repatriated today. The entire group, led by a colonel, consists of 36 officers and 240 lower-rank personnel.