
Six individuals sustained injuries when a Myanmar Army plane crash-landed at Lengpui airport in Mizoram on Tuesday. Among the 14 people aboard, including the pilot, those injured were admitted to Lengpui Hospital, as confirmed by the Mizoram director general of police. Initial reports suggested that the incident occurred while the aircraft, which had come to pick up recently arrived Myanmar Army personnel in India, suffered damage after veering off the runway at Lengpui airport.
This event coincided with India repatriating 184 Myanmarese soldiers who had sought refuge in Mizoram after clashes with an ethnic insurgent group. A total of 276 Myanmarese soldiers had entered Mizoram last week, and 184 were sent back on Monday, with the remaining 92 scheduled for repatriation on Tuesday. The soldiers had fled to Mizoram after their camp was overrun by ‘Arakan Army’ fighters in Bandukbanga village, located at the India-Myanmar-Bangladesh trijunction in southernmost Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district.
Escorted to an Assam Rifles camp at Parva, the majority of the soldiers were later relocated to Lunglei. Under the supervision of the Assam Rifles, these 276 soldiers were brought to Aizawl for transportation to Myanmar from Lengpui airport. The group, led by a colonel and comprising 36 officers and 240 lower-rank personnel, has seen 359 soldiers already repatriated.
Mizoram, sharing a 510-km-long border with Myanmar, has witnessed recent instances of repatriation involving the Indian Air Force helicopters in November and Myanmar Air Force planes earlier this month.