Fleeing Myanmar: ‘We defied orders to kill anti-coup protesters’

Raising a three-finger salute, a symbol of resistance, Myanmar police officers recount escape to India after the coup.

A group of police officers who defied the Myanmar army’s orders to shoot opponents of the coup recounted their experience after they escaped to India. While speaking, they raised a three-finger salute – a symbol of resistance to Myanmar’s military rulers. “We cannot hurt our people, that’s why we came to Mizoram,” said one of the men, who hails from the northwestern town of Tedim. Mizoram state in India’s northeast shares a border with Bangladesh and Myanmar. After the army coup, the police were ordered to “shoot people and not just the people, we were told to shoot our own family if they are not on the side of the army,” he said.