Policemen, firemen among over 400 Myanmar nationals seeking shelter in India

The policemen said they had fled because they feared persecution after refusing to obey the military junta’s orders to shoot protesters.

More than 400 people from Myanmar, many of them policemen, have crossed into neighbouring India since late February, an Indian police officer said on Monday, as Myanmar security forces seek to crush pro-democracy demonstrators after last month’s coup. The policemen said they had fled because they feared persecution after refusing to obey the military junta’s orders to shoot protesters. “About 116 crossed on Friday,” the police officer in the Indian state of Mizoram told Reuters, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. They included policemen and firemen, some of whom carried only clothes stuffed into white plastic sacks as they crossed the border.