by Bhupen Goswami
GUWAHATI : Assam Police has said that it has arrested 26 suspected myanmar nationals who recovered fake Indian documents from a lodge here. He said forged documents like Aadhaar and voter ID cards were recovered from his belongings “made in Mizoram”. A police official said, “Based on a tip-off, a raid was conducted at a lodge in Rihabari area of the city and 26 people (including 10 women) were apprehended.
During interrogation, he revealed that they were all residents of Chin state of Myanmar and were on their way to Delhi to study theology, the official said. The official said a case has been registered and an inquiry is underway. On the other hand, the Indian Border Police officer today said that myanmar army and opposition forces have continued their fierce fighting in the western region of the country from last Friday till today. The battle between government troops and the resistance force has once again started from 3.30 pm tonight. An Indian Border Police officer today said that the fiercest battle between government troops and resistance force has taken place since July.
Twenty-five to thirty villagers, including several teenagers, have been killed in the fighting. According to the Mizoram government, with the onset of new refugees, the number of Myanmar migrants seeking asylum in Mizoram increased to about 35,900 since the military coup in Myanmar on February 1. Talking to the local police and district officials, MLAs and others over phone from various places in Mizoram, they said desperate Myanmar refugees crossed the Tiau river through a small native boat and swam across the border villages of the northeastern state to seek shelter. The Tiau river (which flows along Champhai district in eastern Mizoram), an international border, was crossed by refugees in small boats with the help of local Mizo people, a Member of Parliament from Mizoram said over phone from Aizawl.
The police official said the Chinland Defence Force and the Chin National Army (or Chin National Force) had captured the Myanmar Army camp in Lunglar village opposite the Mizoram border in a joint operation last week and detained 12 Myanmar army soldiers. The military authority had then sent some helicopters and two jet fighter jets to launch a counter-attack. Fierce gunfire and shelling and the use of other firearms between anti-coup NUG and Myanmar army activists could be heard from villages bordering Myanmar. Officials of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), which holds data on Myanmar’s refugees, said about 35,900 refugees, including about 29 MLAs, have taken shelter in 11 districts of Mizoram since March this year.