Aizawl: Amid the ongoing offensive by the Bangladesh army, numbers of Kuki-Chin militants have crossed to the Indian side in Mizoram recently.
In a joint operation, Assam Rifles and state police recovered a huge cache of ammunition and arrested three Kuki-Chin militants on June 5. The arrests included a senior citizen in south Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district near the Bangladesh border. An official release of the Assam Rifles said.
The Assam Rifles sources said that security forces launched an operation to nab the militants hiding in the border area based on specific inputs.
Three cadres of the Kuki-Chin National Army (KCNA), an insurgent outfit active in Bangladesh Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), crossed the Indo-Bangladesh border and took shelter on the Indian side. On receiving the specific inputs, a team of Assam Rifles and Mizoram state police launched the operation and nabbed three Kuki-Chin militants with a huge cache of ammunition. The arrested militants are smuggling war-like stores in the Lawngtlai district with the help of some locals, the Assam Rifles sources said.
Security forces seized 1,008 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition, two rounds of 9 mm ammunition and one each round of UBGL 40/46 mm ammunition and 38 spl ammunition recovered during the operation.
Arrested Kuki-Chin militants are identified as Joseph Lalnuntluang (48), Vanrothawna (58) and Dabibadah (75).
Mizoram police said that the arrested Kuki-Chin militants crossed the border and were planning to hand over the ammunition to KCNA cadres sheltering at Hmambu or Bultlang village in the district.
The three arrested militants are suspected to be KCNA supporters.
Meanwhile, Assam Rifles, in its statement, said that the smuggling of war-like stores in south Mizoram has been increasing since the influx of Kuki-Chin immigrants from Bangladesh. The movement of Bangladesh insurgent groups has increased in India along with the influx of immigrants from the neighbouring country, the statement reads.
The immigrant Kuki-Chin militants are involved in smuggling war-like stores in Mizoram, posing a threat to internal security. The statement said that Assam Rifles is presently deployed in large numbers to safeguard the Indo-Myanmar border.
It should be mentioned that several Kuki-Chin militants have been arrested in Mizoram since March this year when the Bangladesh army started an offensive against the insurgent group. A 29-year-old militant belonging to the Kuki-Chin National Army was arrested by Assam Rifles in Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district by the Assam Rifles. On March 10, Assam Rifles apprehended another KCNA militant in Hmunnuam village in the same district.
After the Bangladesh Army’s offensive against the KCNA, more than 500 people from the neighbouring country’s Chittagong Hill Tracts have taken refuge in the Lawngtlai district.
These militants are also involved in arms and drugs smuggling to India via the International border. Mizoram shares a stretch of 318 kilometres with Bangladesh.
It should be mentioned that the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA) is the armed wing of the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) – a separatist group that was established in 2008. The primary objective of the militant group was to create a separate state for the Kuki- Chin community in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Southern Bangladesh. About 35 lakh Kuki Chin resides in the Chittagong Hill Tracts bordering the Mizoram state of India.
The KNF claims that almost 35 lakhs of the Bawm, Pungkhua, Lushai, Khumi, Mro, and Khyang ethnic groups living in the CHT area of Bangladesh are part of the greater Kuki-Chin race. Interestingly the KNF has close relationships with several rebel groups in Northeast India and Myanmar.
The ongoing arm conflict between Bangladesh security forces and the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA) triggered an influx of refugees from the Kuki-Chin community to the Indian state of Mizoram. Some 30,000 refugees from Myanmar Chin province are currently taking shelter in Mizoram.
