Gulf News

SCORES OF CITIZENS WAITING TO ENTER INDIA

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Scores of Myanmar nationals have gathered at the border with India waiting to join about

50 who have already crossed the frontier to flee the country’s coup turmoil, Indian officials said yesterday.

Myanmar authoritie­s have meanwhile asked India to send back eight police who fled this week. Forty-eight Myanmar nationals, including the eight police, have entered India’s northeaste­rn state of Mizoram, a senior officer in the Assam

Rifles paramilita­ry force said. “At least 85 civilians from Myanmar have been waiting at the internatio­nal border to enter India,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Anti-coup demonstrat­ions have spread across Myanmar since a February 1 putsch ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Security forces have escalated a brutal crackdown on protesters, killing more than 50 people. Indian media reports said those who have crossed the border include police and local officials who refused to follow military orders.

Myanmar has sent a letter, seen by AFP, asking for the eight police to be quicky sent back. The letter was sent to officials in Mizoram’s Champhai district where some of the refugees are.

Indian government officials said the letter was being studied along with the cases of those who have crossed the border. India, which has sought to build closer ties with Myanmar in order to counter China’s influence, has not condemned the coup but the country’s UN ambassador T.S. Tirumurti this week said that Myanmar’s democratic gains of recent years “should not get undermined.”

Forty-eight Myanmar nationals, including the eight police, have entered India’s northeaste­rn state of Mizoram, a senior officer in the Assam Rifles paramilita­ry force said.

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