Three Indian Nationals Killed in Myanmar Civil War
Three Indian nationals have been killed in Myanmar in an unusual sequence of events that has left resistance groups groping for answers.
The three Indian nationals were arrested at Tedim in Myanmar’s Chin State on March 17 after they were found wandering in a suspicious manner by members of the People’s Defense Army (PDA), which is one of the several pro-democracy resistance groups active in the region.
Tedim is located about 80 kilometers east of the border town of Zokhawthar in the Indian state of Mizoram and is inhabited by the Zomi community.
A senior PDA functionary told The Diplomat that the trio was taken to a safehouse and quizzed for several hours. All the documents in their possession, including three Indian voter identity cards and only one inner line permit, which every Indian national must obtain for visiting Mizoram, were seized from them.
The voter identity cards revealed the names of Aftar Hussain Mazumder, Jahangir Mirza, and Arfik Rahaman Khan. While Mazumder and Mirza hail from Cachar in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, Khan’s residence is at Paschim (West) Medinipur in West Bengal. The trio traveled in a white SUV with a West Bengal registration number from the border town of Zokhawthar in Mizoram to Tedim. The PDA has seized the vehicle as well.
The vehicle in which the three Indian men reportedly traveled from Mizoram in India to Tedim in Myanmar’s Chin State.
(Photo credit: Special Arrangement)
“They could speak neither Mizo nor English. They did not have any knowledge of the terrain and the disturbed conditions in the region,” said the PDA functionary, who did not want to be named, adding that “nobody, and not even journalists, ventures into the region without the knowledge of the resistance groups.
But we understood that they were Bengalis, and so we began searching for a translator. On the next day, we managed to bring one translator from Mizoram and began a fresh round of interrogation,” claimed the functionary.
The Indian nationals disclosed that they had traveled to Tedim to explore the possibility of selling pillows and mattresses. “We remained confused but decided to seize the vehicle and release them at the border on the next day. But tragedy struck on the early morning of the next day,” the functionary explained.
On March 20, the arrested nationals were relocated from the safehouse to a PDA camp at a remote location in the hills between Tonzang and Tedim. Around 5 a.m. on March 22, a group of about 30 functionaries belonging to another rebel outfit aligned with the Myanmar military that also operates out of the Indian state of Manipur attacked the camp, resulting in a gun battle between the two sides that lasted half an hour.
Eventually, the PDA members escaped and scurried to safety after their ammunition was exhausted, leaving the three Indian nationals in the camp. The functionaries of the other outfit overran the camp, burned it and exited only around noon on the same day. The PDA returned to their destroyed camp on the next day and recovered the dead bodies of the three Indian nationals who were buried after four hours.
The Indian voter identity cards of the three deceased men, which were recovered by the People’s Defense Army, an anti-junta rebel group in Myanmar. (Photo credit: Special Arrangement)
The PDA alleges that all three Indian nationals were tortured and then shot dead at close range by the functionaries of the other outfit. The photographs that were sent to this correspondent reveal that the legs of one person were chopped off before he was killed.
A functionary of another resistance outfit active in the region has not ruled out the possibility of two persons being killed in the crossfire between the two groups. He suspects that the third might have been tortured and then killed by the attackers.
Incidentally, there was a rumor circulating among some resistance groups active in the region that spies from India could cross over to Myanmar’s Chin State for gathering information and cultivating contacts.
What makes this episode suspicious is the presence of a resident from the Indian state of West Bengal and the fake phone number of a local resident he had mentioned in the form to obtain the inner line permit in Mizoram. Apparently, he knew that the Mizoram government authorities do not check the authenticity of the details of local contacts submitted in the form.
Although many rebel outfits from India’s northeastern region are involved in Myanmar’s civil war, instances of Indian civilians from regions other than the four Indian border states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh venturing into Myanmar are extremely rare. In 2022, two Indian nationals from Manipur’s border town of Moreh, belonging to the Tamil community, were killed by unknown assailants in the contiguous zone of Tamu in Myanmar. The speculation among some sections of residents in Moreh was that the two persons were killed following a dispute in their business deals with some Myanmar citizens.
While the actual motive of the three Indian nationals to venture into a conflict zone in Myanmar remains a riddle, the incident raises questions about the efficacy of the Indian government’s mechanism to keep a tab on the movement of outsiders in sensitive border zones of the country’s northeast. Several similar incidents have happened in the past. Some of them snowballed into major controversies.
