Guwahati, Oct 23: Assam police on Friday detained five Myanmar nationals along with a Mizo girl at the inter-state borders with Mizoram in Cachar district of Barak Valley in the state’s southern end.

According to Cachar Police, the detained, all male, who had allegedly crossed into Mizoram from Myanmar were attempting to reach the national capital Delhi.

The detainees have been identified as Thang Khawm Pau, Khen khan kham, Pau Hawmliam Mung, Cin Aih Mang, and Pau Biak Muang.

A girl from Zokhawtjar area in Champhai district of Mizoram, Dimdeihluni, was travelling along them, who allegedly worked as a guide for them.Sources said the Myanmar nationals were intercepted at the Lailapur check point in Cachar on Friday evening. They were travelling from Champhai which also shares a porous border and an ethnic ancestry with people of Chin state in Myanmar.

According to police, all the detainees hail from a village named Tiddin in Sezang district of Chin state.

Over 12,000 flee Myanmar after Junta coup

Post the Junta coup that toppled Myanmar’s democratic government in February 1, 2021, over 12,000 from the Chin state and neighbouring places in Myanmar have taken refuge in Champhai and other districts of Mizoram, the only state in India that is providing them shelter.

The country has seen series of incursions and clashes since then between the people led by their government in exile and the Junta.

The incident comes weeks after 11 Myanmar nationals were detained at the Imphal Airport, while on October 8, Assam Rifles detained 24 others a Moreh which shares international borders with Myanmar in Manipur with fake Aadhaar cards.

Mizoram – the only state helping Myanmar Refugees

Initially after the coup, the Myanmar refugees were settled in Mizoram as Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh with which the neighbouring country also shares border, abiding by Union Home Affairs order, declined shelter to the refugees as India wasn’t part of UN Refugee Convention 1951 and its subsequent protocol 1967, denied shelter.

“But, after Mizoram itself got burdened with the refugees and its fast worsening COVID-19 scenario, several of the refugees are now venturing out of the state by procuring fake Indian documents to other parts of the country,” said an intelligence source.

Mizoram government had time and again sought monetary aid from the Centre only to be turned down every time.