New Delhi, November 5
The government today claimed that with its “timely intervention” the authorities could manage to free five Indians and five Myanmar nationals, including an MP, from the captivity of ethnic rebel group in the country’s restive Rakhine province.
In an official statement, the MHA said the five Indian nationals, along with a Member of Myanmar Parliament, two local transporters and two speedboat operators, were abducted by the Arakan Army on Sunday while on their way from Paletwa in Chin State to Kyauktaw in Rakhine. The abducted Indians were engaged in building a Kaladan road project in Myanmar, it added.
“Timely intervention by the Government of India has ensured the release of five abducted Indian nationals, a Member of Myanmar Parliament and four other Myanmar nationals from Arakan Army in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, in the early hours on Monday,” the MHA said, while adding that one Indian national, who was suffering from diabetes, died in the Arakan army’s custody due to heart attack.
The released Indians reached Sittwe and would leave for Yangon on Tuesday for their onward journey to India, the MHA said. The Arakan Army is a Rakhine based insurgent group founded as the armed wing of the United League of Arakan.
It has been fighting for almost a decade for greater autonomy to ethnic Rakhine Buddhists. This is the first time the Arakan Army has captured foreign workers in the resource-rich area, which hosts a series of infrastructure projects linking India and Myanmar. — TNS
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/33hs4Eu
via Today’s News Headlines
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