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Mizoram: Burmese Army Plane Crashes At Lengpui Airport, 6 Injured

Mizoram DGP 14 people were on board with the pilot, adding that the injured were admitted to Lengpui Hospital

Screen grab from video posted on X/ANI
The injured were admitted to Lengpui hospital, Mizoram DGP said Photo: Screen grab from video posted on X/ANI
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Six people were injured after a plane of the Burmese Army with 14 people on board, including the pilot, crashed at Mizoram's Lengpui airport on Tuesday.

Mizoram DGP said the injured were admitted to Lengpui Hospital.

As per the received information, the army plane that crashed while landing had arrived to pick up Myanmar Army personnel who entered India recently, a Hindustan Times report mentioned.

The incident takes place on a day an Assam Rifles official said India sent back 184 Myanmarese soldiers to their own country after they fled to Mizoram last week following gunfights with an ethnic insurgent group. A total of 276 Myanmarese soldiers had entered Mizoram last week, and of them, 184 were sent back on Monday, the Assam Rifles official said.

They were flown on Myanmar Air Force planes from the Lengpui airport near Aizawl to Sittwe in the neighbouring country's Rakhine state, the official said.

Mizoram shares a 510-km-long border with Myanmar.

The remaining 92 of the 276 soldiers will be repatriated on Tuesday, the official added.

The Myanmarese soldiers entered Bandukbanga village, located at the India-Myanmar-Bangladesh trijunction, in southernmost Mizoram's Lawngtlai district with arms and ammunition on January 17 and approached the Assam Rifles.

They fled to Mizoram after their camp was overrun and captured by 'Arakan Army' fighters. The Myanmarese soldiers were taken to the nearby Assam Rifles camp at Parva, and later the majority of them were shifted to Lunglei, the official said.

The group is headed by a colonel, and has 36 officers and 240 lower-rank personnel, officials said.

With the 276 soldiers who entered last week, as many as 635 Myanmar soldiers have fled to Mizoram after their camps were overrun and captured by ethnic armed organisations and pro-democratic forces, officials said.

(with PTI inputs)