New Delhi: An Indian engineer who was part of a group of five Indian workers taken hostage by the Arakan Army (AA) rebels died due to a heart attack on Monday, Myanmar’s media reported. The 60-year-old construction advisor, named Vinoo Gopal, passed away when the abducted group was “climbing a mountain”, U Soe Htet, a minister in the Chin government told the media.
AA publicity officer Khaing Thu Kha has been quoted by media to have said on Gopal’s death: “We briefly brought him for questioning but he was out of breath. He has diabetes and hypertension. He said us that he had suffered from heart disease. He began to have laboured breathing. Our medical officers tried to save his life but in vain.”
Gopal’s body will be airlifted from Sittwe to Yangon to be handed over to the Indian embassy. The remaining four Indians, part of a group of ten people who were abducted by the guerillas, were all released later by the AA which is fighting the Myanmarese army, called the Tatmadaw, in Chin province.
The AA still has in its captivity a Member of Parliament of the Chin State Upper House. The Indians employed by two companies named the Engineering Projects of India Ltd and RPP Infra Projects were engaged in the India-funded Kaladan project in China province, a key road-river-port cargo transport project that is a vital part of India’s Act East policy.
The project connects India’s landlocked Northeast with the Chin and Rakhine provinces of Myanmar.
The Narendra Modi government is strongly focussed on the Act East policy that accords primacy to taking economic relations with the countries in the East to new heights in alignment with India's ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy where Myanmar plays a key role.
