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NEW DELHI: Myanmar authorities have called on India to return several policemen who sought refuge to avoid taking orders from a military junta that seized power in the Southeast Asian country last month, an official in northeast India said on Saturday (March 6).
Around 30 Myanmar police officers and their families crossed the border seeking refuge in recent days, as the junta’s crackdown on protesters turned increasingly violent, with dozens killed since the coup on 1 February.
The senior official in Champhai, a district in the Indian state of Mizoram, told Reuters that she had received a letter from her counterpart in Myanmar’s Falam district requesting the return of eight police officers “to maintain friendly relations.”
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Deputy Commissioner Maria CT Zuali told Reuters on Saturday that she was “awaiting direction” from the Indian Interior Ministry in New Delhi.
Although cases have been reported on social media of policemen joining the civil disobedience movement and protests against the junta, this is the first reported case of policemen fleeing Myanmar.
In the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, Myanmar authorities said they had information on eight policemen who had crossed into India. The letter listed the details of four police officers, ages 22 to 25, including one officer.
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“In order to maintain friendly relations between the two neighboring countries, we kindly ask you to arrest 8 members of the Myanmar police who had arrived in the Indian territories and hand them over to Myanmar,” the letter said.
India’s federal Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters. India’s Foreign Ministry responded to a request for comment referring to a statement given at a press conference on Friday that said the ministry was still “finding out the facts.”
