A General Administration Department (GAD) officer in Chin State’s Falam Township has requested that the Mizoram state government in India return eight policemen to Myanmar after they sought refuge across the border following the February 1 military coup.
The Chin State police officers joined the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement in Burma, refusing to work for the new regime. They crossed the border to neighboring Mizoram state in India to avoid repercussions by security forces and the ruling military council for participating in the ongoing general strike.
Saw Tun Win, the GAD officer in Falam, sent an official request to the Champhai District officer in Mizoram on March 5, asking that the police be transferred back to Burma.
Mizoram’s home affairs minister Pu Lalchamliana reportedly rejected the request and asserted that he would not send the police officers back to Burma, according to a source who spoke with him.
“I went to see the home affairs minister of Mizoram state when I heard about this case. The situation is fine. The home affairs minister told us they wouldn’t transfer these Burmese police officers to the Burmese military government,” Pu B. Vanlaltana, chair of the Mizo Students Union, told Khonumthung News.
He added that his student union would discuss the issue with the central Indian government as well.
Pu B. Vanlaltana also said that, if necessary, his community would welcome ethnic Chin refugees fleeing civil war in Burma, and have requested that the people of Mizoram provide assistance to them.
Soldiers from both the Assam Rifles—in the Indian army—and from the Burmese border police have tightened security along the Burma-India border, according to locals.
“At the moment, it’s really difficult to cross the borderline,” a man in the border village of Zokhawhta, told Khonumthung News, citing increased militarization in the area.