Arms smuggling endangering peace in state
Mizoram, which boasts of being peaceful, is facing danger of its tranquility being shattered by smuggling of arms through its borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Mizoram, which boasts of being an island of peace in the insurgent-hit North East region after the historic peace accord in 1986, is facing danger of its tranquility being shattered by smuggling of arms through its porous borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Sandwiched between Myanmar and Bangladesh, Mizoram's international border areas are conduits for arms smugglers with recent seizures of huge weapons caches near Aizawl and other places worrying the administration.
The police seized 19 AK-47 assault rifles and a huge quantity of ammunition during end June at Sairang near Aizawl and arrested two militants belonging to Assam's North Cachar Hills-based Dima Halam Daoga (DHD) and six members of the former Bru Liberation Front of Mizoram (BLFM).
The sources said that the former BLFM cadres, disgruntled with the Centre for not releasing fund meant for their resettlement were trying to regroup and rearm with the help of the DHD ultras.
The arms were procured by two arms smugglers, one of them a Myanmarese national, from Myanmar.
Seven AK-47 rifles and a rocket launcher with rocket shells were again seized by the Excise and Narcotics department officials on July five at Vairengte village on the Mizoram-Assam border.
The vehicle, which was used for transporting the contraband was from Meghalaya and was used to bring the arms from Myanmar for the use of a Meghalaya-based insurgent group.
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