AIZAWL:
Mizoram government sources here said that the Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) building at Falkland locality is being prepared for lodging people who crossed over from
Myanmar. This was a quarantine facility at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.
Unofficial sources have informed that over 300 refugees have taken shelter in
Aizawl, including some members of the
National League for Democracy who were elected to the parliament of Myanmar in the November 2020 elections.
Meanwhile, leader of the Aizawl-based NGO United for Democracy in Myanmar, Ramlawma, told TOI that the Myanmar army indiscriminately fired at protesters on Palm Sunday (March 28) at Kalaymyo township, forcing the desperate protesters to shoot back.
Ramlawma said the civilian protesters under the umbrella of Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) have collected weapons and vowed to strike back, and ethnic insurgent groups have also pledged their support to them.
Student bodies and civil society groups in Mizoram have been asking the Centre and the state government to provide relief and assistance to the Myanmarese. Vanlaltana, president of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl, the apex Mizo student body, said India should not call itself the world’s largest democracy if it does not give a helping hand to the pro-democratic protesters in Myanmar.