'We ran towards India': Fear grips Myanmar border areas

The roofs are damaged, the streets are littered with splinters, and tin sheets that served as walls have holes pierced by bombs. Many of the houses are locked but some are just bolted, and most of the windowpanes are shattered. The scenes are almost similar in Tiao D and Tiao Khawmami, two villages about 4km from Mizoram across the international border in Myanmar.

- Prawesh Lama

On Thursday, when HT visited these villages, a few families were seen repairing their homes, but most people were staying put at relief camps in Zohkawathar in Mizoram, fearing that there would be another attack. The Tiao river separates Zohkawathar, a town in Mizoram's Changphai district, from Myanmar, and a small bridge over the porous border offers easy access to both sides. There is no restriction on residents from the two countries to travel up to 16km into each other's territories without a visa or a permit.

Earlier this month, rebel groups in Myanmar, including the Chin National Army (CNA), the People's Democratic Force (PDF), and the Chinland Defence Force, took over military posts in the border areas in a bid to take back territory from the Junta, which has been in control of the country since the military coup in 2021. In response, the Myanmar Army bombed areas in the vicinity, resulting in thousands of people living in villages nearby feeling to India. Over 5,000 Myanmar nationals crossed over to Zohkawathar from Tiao D and Tiao Khawmami on November 12-13.

"I have returned to rebuild the roof but we will not spend the night here. It's not safe...," Laldin Liana, 35, a resident of Tiau D village, said while construction workers finished placing a new tin sheet to serve as his roof. The old roof, Liana said, had over 50 splinter holes in it.