A number of people have begun escaping the turmoil in Myanmar into India, some of them police refusing to take part in the violent crackdown on protests against a military coup there, officials and reports said.
Myanmar's junta ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February, triggering a mass uprising that the military has responded to with increasingly lethal force. The United Nations (UN) said at least 38 people were killed on Wednesday.
Indian police said nine people crossed the 1,600-kilometre (1,000-mile) border into Mizoram state on the same day, three of them police refusing to take part in putting down protests.
India's foreign ministry told reporters Friday that it was "ascertaining facts".
The Hindu daily said at least 20 people have crossed over since Wednesday, and quoted locals as saying there were at least 50 in the districts of Champhai and Serchhip.
"Their identities and reasons for fleeing Myanmar have been forwarded to the State's Home Department," Serchhip's deputy commissioner Kumar Abhishek said.
The Hindustan Times quoted officials in Mizoram saying that locals have been told to report immediately any further Myanmar nationals crossing the frontier.
Champai deputy commissioner Maria CT Zuali told the paper that "those persons have to be caught and the local authorities alerted."
"We will try and find out if at all the lives of those entering India are threatened in Myanmar. We can decide on these people based on what the (central government) says," Zuali said.
"If permission is not granted to take them in as refugees, they would be deported."
Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga said earlier that the state would welcome people fleeing the Myanmar military "with open arms, give them food and shelter".
"We would even approach the central government to grant us permission in the event of a refugee influx," he said.
Waiting To Enter India
Scores of Myanmar nationals gathered at the border with India waiting to join about 50 who have already crossed the frontier to flee the country's coup turmoil, Indian officials said Saturday.
Myanmar authorities have meanwhile asked India to send back eight police who fled this week.
48 Myanmar nationals, including the eight police, have entered India's north eastern state of Mizoram, a senior officer in the Assam Rifles paramilitary force told the media.
"At least 85 civilians from Myanmar have been waiting at the international border to enter India," the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Indian media reports said those who have crossed the border include police and local officials who refused to follow military orders.
Myanmar has sent a letter, asking for the eight police to be quicky sent back.
The letter was sent to officials in Mizoram's Champhai district where some of the refugees are.
"In order to uphold friendly relations between the two neighbour countries, you are kindly requested to detain eight Myanmar police personnel who had arrived to Indian territories and hand-over to Myanmar," the letter said.
Indian government officials said the letter was being studied along with the cases of those who have crossed the border.
India, which has sought to build closer ties with Myanmar in order to counter China's influence, has not condemned the coup but the country's UN ambassador T S Tirumurti this week said that Myanmar's democratic gains of recent years "should not get undermined." – AFP