Border panic as Indian troops kill Myanmar rebels

Flies hovering over the black and swollen bodies of men and boys, lying side by side on a tarpaulin, in bloody battle fatigue, preparing for the hurrying cremation in the Tamu area of ​​Myanmar’s Saganing region, bordering India.

The rapidly arranged wood logs form the bottom of the massive puzzle, with several worn rubber tires burning beside them to maintain the fire, with the wreath of orange and green just within the range of the flame.

On May 14, three of the 10 members of Pa Ka Pha (PKP), a part of the larger People’s Defense Forces (PDF) killed by Indian troops were teenagers.

PKP by National Solidarity Government (Nug) Myanmar’s government in exile, including lawmakers canceled in the 2021 coup, including Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, legislators of the National Democratic League.

It mostly contributes to PDF – a network of militia groups against military government, actually nug’s army.

Indian troops said on May 14, the country’s Assam Rifle (AR) paramilitary forces patrolled border posts in northeastern India’s Manipur state, killing 10 people armed with “war shops suspected of participating in cross-border insurgency activities”. Indian troops said the battalion was “taking specific intelligence”.

Indian soldiers are stationed on the Chandel border, a continuous area of ​​Tamu on the Myanmar side of the border. Manipur has been torn apart by a civil war between ethnic groups over the past two years, with Indian authorities often accusing immigrants from Myanmar of falling into tension.

However, objecting to the Indian version of the May 14 incident, the exiled Nug said that his cadres “had not been killed in an armed encounter within Indian territory.” Instead, it said in a statement that they were “captured, tortured and propagandized by Indian Army personnel.”

Since the coup, political analysts and conflict observers have said that resistance groups operating along Myanmar have bordered India’s 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) and have gained understanding with Indian troops, both sides are effectively introducing their businesses.

Now changes with the killings of TAMU, through exiled nugs, dozens of armed rebel groups and thousands of refugees fleeing the Myanmar war have found shelter in northeast India. They are now afraid of overflow along the wider border.

“The fighters panic, but the refugees are even more worried – they are all feeling unsafe now,” said Thida*, who works with Tamu Pa Ah Pha or the People’s Management Team.

Meanwhile, New Delhi has moved to the past year Fence and the international border of Myanmarin India and Myanmar in the late 1940s, transnational ethnic communities enjoyed several generations of open movement before India and Myanmar ruled in Britain.

“We feel safe [with India in our neighbourhood]Tida said. “But after this incident, we became very worried, you know, something like that might be going from Indian troops.”

“It hasn’t happened in the past four years [since the armed uprising against the coup]but it has happened now,” she told Al Jazeera. “So, once the first time comes, there may be a second or third time. That’s the biggest worry. ”

“Presponsible or revenge?”

On May 12, 10 cadres from PKP arrived at their newly established camp in Tam after their earlier posts came into contact with the Myanmar military. A senior Nug official and two locals in TAMU independently told Al Jazeera that they had reminded the existence of Indian troops.

“AR personnel visited the new camp [on May 12],” Tida said: “They were told every step of our way. ”

In the next four days, it was impossible to verify independently, and Indian officials and Nug encountered a conflicting version. There are also contradictions in the narratives proposed by Indian officials.

On May 14, the Indian Army’s Eastern Command claimed that its troops had taken “intelligence” action but “suspected cadres opened fire” and killed 10 cadres in a gunfight in the new Samthar area of ​​Chandell.

Two days later, on May 16, a spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Defense said that the “Assam Rifle Patrol” was fired. In revenge, they killed “10 people, wearing camouflaged fatigue” and recovered seven AK-47 rifles and a grenade launcher distributed by a rocket.

Five days later, on May 21, the Ministry of Defense identified the person killed as a PKP cadre. A spokesman for the ministry further pointed out that “Parking to disinfect the area, along the fence construction is underway. [border]suffered a strong automatic fire, with the aim of “inflicting serious injuries to construction workers or the troops of Assam rifles to prevent fencing work”.

Talk to retired U.S. government official Al Jazeera, who has provided New Delhi with a decade of Myanmar policy, points to the Indian version of disharmony: Did Indian soldiers respond positively to intelligence alerts, or did they respond to the attacks of Myanmar rebels?

The retired official asked to speak anonymously, saying: “It’s hard to understand the killings. The conflicting suggestion, he said, “had a mistake happened, maybe in the fog of war.”

“This cannot be either proactive action or revenge.”

Al Jazeera asked Indian troops to comment on the issue of the first issue of the operation on May 26 and then again on May 30, but no response has been received.

Thura [PKP cadres] Without combat training, not even enough armed, it is impossible to imagine joining a professional army”.

“Use our war”

When they were informed of their death toll by Indian troops on May 16, local Tamu authorities rushed to India.

“Assam rifle has prepared documents for the documents,” said a TAMU official who is coordinating the exchange of bodies. “We are forced to sign false documents, or they threaten not to give martyrs bodies.”

Al Jazeera reviewed three of the documents, meaning consent to the border fence and highlighted the killing of PDF cadres in a gunfight in Indian territory.

Thida of Tam People’s Management Team and Nug officials told Al Jazeera that they have repeatedly asked Indian officials to reconsider the border fence.

“Last month, we have been asking the Indian army to talk to our ministry [referring to the exiled NUG] And have a meeting. Before this, stop the border fence process. ” she said.

Thida was confused by the murder, “It’s easy to take advantage when our country is in such a crisis. And, honestly, we can’t do anything about it. We are the rebels of our country – how do we fight against the large Indian army?”

Most importantly, TEDA said she was heartbroken. “The state of the corpse is frightening. Insects grow inside the body.” “If nothing is left, Indian troops should respect our dead.”

Border fence anxiety

Angshuman Choudhury, an ally of researchers focused on Myanmar and northeastern India, said conflict observers were “confused by these killings by Tamu”.

“This is counterintuitive and should not happen in any way,” he said.

Choudhary pointed out that the main point of the dispute is the border fence. “This has been causing friction on the borders. And, in terms of serious territorial misunderstandings of groups on both sides, very violent novels.”

When New Delhi first moved last year to end the Freedom Movement regime (allowing cross-border movement to residents), indigenous communities in Mizoram, Nagaram, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India were shocked. Members of these communities live on both sides of the border with Myanmar and have a history of hundreds of years.

Political analysts and scholars point out that the border communities on both sides are consistent with the idea of ​​India and Myanmar because of free traveling back and forth. Choudhary believes that building physical infrastructure has caused an anxiety in these transnational communities and has not demarcated it on the map.

“Through the fence, India is creating a whole new form of anxiety that didn’t exist even in the 1940s, the direct postcolonial period,” Choudhuharry said. “It will create absolutely unnecessary instability, ugliness and forms of enlargement of existing fault lines.”

Last year, India’s interior minister Amit Shah said border fences would ensure “internal security” in India and “maintain the demographic structure of areas bordering Myanmar”, which was widely regarded as a response to the response. Manipur conflict.

Since May 2023, the ongoing racial violence between the Meitei majority and the ethnic minority communities of Kuki and Naga have killed more than 250 people and displaced. The national government faces allegations of aggravated turmoil in order to strengthen support for the Met population that the government denies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and Manipur State government, also under the BJP, blamed the crisis in Manipur on undocumented immigration in Myanmar, who have accused them of deepening racial tensions.

Now, with Tamu’s killings, Choudhary said that Indian security forces have a new dissatisfaction border along one, with numerous armed groups opposing Myanmar’s dominance of military operations – so far, relatively peaceful with Indian forces.

He said death could change the rules of participation between Indian troops and these groups. “Remember, other rebel groups [in Myanmar] He said he is also paying close attention. These problems may spiral quickly. ”