Myanmar has requested the Mizoram administration to send back eight policemen, who have crossed the international border to the northeastern state seeking refuge to avoid taking orders from the junta following February 1 military coup in the neighbouring country, reports PTI quoting an official. Myanmar has been enfolded in protests since the military coup as the country’s junta continues to suppress the demonstrators, a process in which dozens have been killed by the security officials. 

According to a top official of Mizoram’s home department, 16 people have crossed the border over to India from Mizoram over the last few days, of which 11 claim they are police personnel. 

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Around 35 people have sneaked into Mizoram from Myanmar till now, PTI reported quoting sources in the Assam Rifles, which guards the Mizoram-Myanmar border.

The Deputy commissioner of Mizoram’s Champai district said that her counterpart in Myanmar’s Falam has sought the “handover of eight police personnel who fled the neighbouring country and entered India” “in order to uphold friendly relations between the two neighbouring countries,” reports PTI. 

“I have received a letter from the deputy commissioner of Falam district in Myanmar seeking the detainment and handover of eight police personnel to Naypyitaw as a friendly gesture,” Maria CT Zuali told PTI. 

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The letter, undersigned by Falam district deputy commissioner Saw Htun Win, stated that eight Myanmar police personnel from Myanmar, which shares a 510-km-long porous border with India, have escaped to Mizoram. 

The Mizoram’s state home department top official said that Union Home Ministry has been apprised of all the latest developments, and the state government is waiting for a “direction” from the Centre.