Myanmar | Pakistan

More than 1,000 people, mostly Chinese, have fled from Myanmar into Thailand this week, Thai authorities said on Friday, after the Myanmar military raided one of the country’s largest scam centres. Sprawling cyberscam hubs, where fraudsters swindle victims through online cons, have flourished along Myanmar’s loosely governed border during its years-long civil war. While some scammers are trafficked into the often-fortified compounds, experts say others work voluntarily, hoping to earn more in the multibillion-dollar illicit industry than they can at home. Thailand’s Tak provincial office said 1,049 people had crossed from Myanmar into Mae Sot district from Wednesday to Friday morning — up from the 677 who had fled the KK Park scam compound as of Thursday morning. Nationals from India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and more than a dozen other countries were among them, the office said in a statement. Thailand’s Immigration Bureau said most of the arrivals were Chinese men. Myanmar’s junta said on Monday...

Nearly 700 foreigners, including Pakistanis, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Thailand, the Thai army said on Thursday, following a military operation against the Chinese-backed KK Park, a notorious cybercrime compound. Thailand has detained 677 people, including 618 men and 59 women, after they crossed the border into Tak province, it said in a statement. Myanmar’s military has taken control of KK Park and is inspecting the area, driving a large number of people into Thailand, the statement said. The people are now undergoing legal procedures and screening, and Thai authorities have also made additional detention facilities available in case existing spaces become insufficient, the army said. “All actions are in line with legal and humanitarian principles,” it said, adding that it was working closely with local security agencies to maintain order along the Thai-Myanmar border. The group consists primarily of individuals from India and China, with smaller numbers from Vietnam, Pakistan, Indonesia and severa...

Regional tensions have flared after reports emerged that India allegedly carried out cross-border drone strikes in Myanmar, raising serious concerns over violations of sovereignty and international law.

Separatist militants in northeastern India said the Indian army carried out cross-border drone strikes on the group’s camps in neighbouring Myanmar on Sunday, killing three of its leaders. Some separatist groups in northeastern India have ethnic, linguistic and cultural ties with minorities across the border in Myanmar and maintain a presence there. Three commanders of the United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) were killed and 19 others wounded in a drone attack in Myanmar near the border, the separatist group said in a series of statements. According to Indian outlet The Hindustan Times, the ULFA-I claimed that three of its members were killed in the attack that used over 150 Israeli-made drones. In a statement, the ULFA-I claimed that the attack by “Indian occupational forces” took place at several camps from the border with Myanmar near Longwa in Nagaland till Pangsai Pass in Arunachal Pradesh between 2am (1:30am PKT) and 4am (3:30am PKT) on Sunday. The outfit claimed that nearly 150-plus dro...

BANGKOK: More than 500 civilians and soldiers fled conflict in Myanmar and crossed into Thailand on Saturday after an assault by ethnic fighters on a military base, the Thai army said. Myanmar has been mired in civil conflict since a military coup in 2021, with the junta battling a coalition of ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy resistance forces. Saturday’s attack by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) targeted a military base in Kayin state at around 3pm local time, Thailand’s military said in a statement. One hundred Myanmar soldiers and 467 civilians had crossed into Thailand on Saturday, where Thai military and police disarmed them and provided treatment and humanitarian aid, officials said. Three kids among 22 civilians killed in monastery bombing Saw Thamain Tun, a leader of the KNLA’s political wing, confirmed there had been fighting near the border and said that joint forces had “seized some front posts” from the army. “Some (Myanmar troops) defe­c­ted to our joint forces, but some of them r...