Fresh arrests uncover foreign mercenary movement to Myanmar via Assam
Foreign nationals, including Americans and Ukrainians, used Assam as a transit route to Myanmar to train rebel groups, raising fresh security concerns
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Guwahati, April 2: As three states of the North East region are protected places, where foreigners need special permission to enter, foreign mercenaries are using Assam as a transit route to visit those places and then proceed to Myanmar to train the rebel forces.
Recently, one American citizen and six Ukrainians were arrested after they returned from Myanmar, where they had been giving training to the rebel forces.
Security sources told The Assam Tribune that in the 1990s, almost all the states of the region, including Assam, were protected areas where foreigners needed special permission to enter. With the improvement of the law and order situation, only Arunachal Pradesh remained a protected area because of its proximity to China.
However, in 2024, a British national was caught with ammunition in his bag at Aizawl airport and interrogation of the person revealed that foreign mercenaries were visiting Myanmar. Immediately, Mizoram and Nagaland were again declared as protected areas.
The recent arrests revealed that foreign mercenaries are still visiting Myanmar through India. To avoid detection, they did not go to Mizoram directly by flight. They landed in the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, as foreigners no longer need special permission to visit Assam.
From Guwahati, the arrested persons went to Mizoram by car and then crossed over to Myanmar by taking advantage of the porous international border. The foreigners were arrested for violating the law by entering a protected area without valid permission.
During questioning, the arrested persons admitted that they visited Myanmar to train the rebel groups. The arrested persons trained Kachin Independent Army (KIA) cadres on drone warfare. In fact, for quite some time, foreign powers were helping out the rebel forces of Myanmar, but no one knew that they were using the territory of India to visit Myanmar.
"What they did in Myanmar is not India's concern. But India's concern is that foreigners are using the North East as a transit route to visit Myanmar. Moreover, they violated the laws by entering protected areas with-out valid permission," sources added.