Yangon: A 60-year-old Indian national has died in Myanmar after being taken hostage with several other compatriots and a Myanmarese lawmaker by an ethnic rebel group in the country’s restive Rakhine province, media reports said Monday.
Vinoo Gopal was among 10 people, including four Indians and U Whei Tin – a lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, abducted Sunday by the Arakan Army from two boats while travelling from Paletwa in the Chin state to Kyauktaw in Rakhine, ‘The Irrawaddy’ newspaper reported.
The Indian workers were part of the ongoing construction on the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transportation Project.
The incident about the death of the Indian worker came into limelight when the Arakan Army released eight people, including four Indians, two translators and two boat drivers, along with Vinoo Gopal’s body at the Kyauktaw Police Station Monday morning, the report said.
Two of the Indian survivors are employees of the Engineering Projects of India Ltd, while the three other Indians, including Gopal, were from the RPP Infra Projects, the paper reported.
The incident came into limelight a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a ‘constructive’ meeting with Suu Kyi in Bangkok on the sidelines of the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN).
The Arakan Army is a Rakhine based insurgent group founded as the armed wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA). It has been fighting for almost a decade for greater autonomy of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.
This is the first time Arakan Army has captured foreign workers in the resource-rich area, which hosts a series of infrastructure projects linking India and Myanmar.
The rebels confirmed that Vinoo Gopal had dieed while the group were marched up a hill.
“Unfortunately he suddenly died from exhaustion… we did not do anything to him,” Arakan Army spokesman Khaing Thukha was quoted as saying by a news agency. “We did not target the Indians but rather the MP (U Whei Tin),” he said. The rebel group also apologised for the death of Gopal.
PTI