Myanmar refugees in India seek asylum

A police officer who fled Myanmar following a military coup in Mizoram, India (Anupam Nath/AP)

Police officers who defied the Myanmar army’s orders to shoot opponents of the coup and escaped to India have urged prime minister Narendra Modi’s government to provide political asylum on humanitarian grounds.

“What we wish is that until and unless the problem is solved in Myanmar, we do not want to go back there,” said one of the men, who has sought refuge in a village in the north-eastern state of Mizoram that shares the border with Myanmar.