BSF foils attempt to smuggle arms & ammunition through Mizoram; seizes huge cache of arms from Mizoram-Bangladesh border; three held

In one of the biggest seizures in the Northeast in recent years, Border Security Force (BSF) personnel recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the Mizoram-Bangladesh border on Tuesday.

According to a BSF release, the recovered arms include 28 AK series assault rifles, a 5.56 mm AK 74 rifle, one carbine, 28 magazines, 7894 ammunition and two ‘khukhri’ daggers.

“Reliable information was received by the BSF about an attempt being made by anti-national elements to smuggle arms and ammunition into Indian territory through Mizoram,” said the release.

“The source who brought this information was questioned in detail and it was found that the information seemed reliable. It was learnt that they were bringing in AK series rifles along with lot of ammunition for some insurgent group,” it added.

The operation was planned under the supervision of Kuldeep Singh, DIG-BSF based at Aizawl and second in command SK Pillai with a team of personnel from the 90th battalion of BSF based in Mamit district.

“It was seen in the late hours that two pickup vehicles were approaching from West Phaileng, on the Mizoram side, which was stopped and the BSF personnel took control of the vehicles and disarmed its 3 occupants,” the release said. The occupants were identified as Lalhuapzuapa (56), Liansanga (46) and Vanlalruata (25), all residents of Aizawl.

An amount of Rs. 39,020/- was also recovered from the individuals. Both the vehicles and the three persons detained are being handed over to Police Station Phaileng, Distt Mamit (Mizoram).

“This is one of the biggest seizures of arms and ammunition in the northeast in the past many years. The alert BSF troops were able to foil the designs of anti-national elements to supply arms and ammunition and create disturbance in Mizoram,” the release said.